Not in Kansas anymore
by multiverse-tourist
Summary: Ever wondered what it would be like to end up in the world of a fandom? What if it isn't all just blue skies and sunshine, when you're a stranger to everyone with no home to go to? Lydia Rayne is about to find that out. [OC, Gen. Trying for a more realistic approach at the concept.]
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N:** Hello there! This is a little experimental project based on the (new) Doctor Who series, in which the happenings of the fanfic/story can be influenced by the readers. To find out more about how it can be influenced, and some more info, __please feel free to check out the profile page**.**_

_Let's start with the most important thing you should know about this; __**it's a fan-insert featuring an original character,**__ who I'll try to keep as realistic as possible. Which means, a fan - someone like you and me, from a world very similar* to our own - ends up in a fandom world through miraculous ways._

_Sounds like a lot of people's biggest dream come true, doesn't it?_

_But have you ever considered just what actually living it might entail?_  
_What if having to survive on your own in a foreign world, where no one knows you, turns out to be not all that wonderful and easygoing as you had always imagined? Ever thought about where you'd go when you no longer have a home? Who to turn to for help when you're a complete stranger to everyone?_  
_That's the approach I'd like to take with this - to look at this concept in a more realistic way._

_Now that we have gone over the basics (I do apologize for the long author's note!), some last import notes:_  
_So far I have already written 3 parts for this on tumblr, so until part 3 there will be no polls to vote on. From then on I will be creating polls on here, so you can slowly begin influencing the happenings. The options will start rather plain for the beginning, but will probably grow more significant with the progress of the story._

_Phew, that shall be all! Just a final warning: __**this first part will be rather long**__ (and maybe a little one-sided, since there's a lot of introspection. Please bear with me there). There are some introductions and explanations to be done, after all. ;)_

_Now then, thank you for reading!_

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**Part 01**

It had been a perfectly normal day.

She had been meeting an older acquaintance in a café in central London, catching up and making plans to go to the cinema and maybe clubbing afterwards the next day. Now she was on the way back to her dad's apartment in order to prepare some dinner, stepping out of the tube station and walking down a street on her right, the late afternoon sun catching in her dyed cherry red hair and giving it a vibrant hue.

It was the third day of Lydia Rayne's annual visit to England. Ever since she became of age after the divorce of her parents, she took a one to two week holiday to spend some time with her father who had returned to living in England. Lydia had stayed behind with her mother in Germany, where she had grown up, with the occasional family trip to England when she was younger. The young woman quite enjoyed her time in London, where her dad had moved to three years ago, getting to know the city bit by bit. While she loved the German city she lived in, there was just something special about the lifestyle in London. If it weren't for her mum, friends and job back in Germany, she might have considered moving there.

She was just deciding on what they would have for dinner, when something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Lydia turned her head to her right, stopping at what she spotted. There was a short dead-end alley with dark brick walls between two buildings, with just a few waste bins standing close to the right wall. Those weren't what caught her attention, though; it was a strange, bright light, seemingly coming from the back wall of the alley. Odd, she didn't see anything that hinted at a lamp… She didn't think an ordinary lamp would be able to shine quite as bright in broad daylight anyway. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine at the sight, making her frown in confusion. Curiosity piqued now (wich often tended to get the better of her, she had to admit), she cautiously made her way towards it, looking around her to see if anyone was watching. She didn't know if it was some private property, after all. Not seeing anyone, she slowly stepped into the alley and came to a stop in front of the back wall. Weird. The light, which was wider than it was high and rather blinding now that she stood so close to it, looked like it came straight _out_ of the wall… Without thinking, she instinctively reached her hand up to trace her fingers along it and see if maybe there was something set into a hole in the wall.

The instant Lydia's fingertips touched the edge of the light, it seemed to shine even brighter and grow. It soon seemed to swallow her hand and didn't stop at that, swallowing everything around her and becoming so overwhelming that she had to squeeze her eyes shut and turn her head away. Even so the brightness was penetrating the thin skin of her eyelids, burning through the neural pathways as if she was looking right into the sun, making her clench her teeth. Then, just for a second, it felt like she wasn't even standing anymore, was she falling? A static like noise grew in her ears until it became almost unbearably loud, her lungs refusing to work in a rising twinge of panic.

And just as she thought she couldn't bear it anymore, it all stopped as suddenly as it had started.

The brightness seemed to subside after a moment, and when she felt it was safe enough to risk a look, she cautiously opened her eyes with a gasp, taking a shaky breath she had been holding. Blinking to get rid of the spots dancing in her vision, she took a look around while lowering her arms, falling into a crouched position. When the spots had faded enough from her vision to actually see her surroundings, she blinked once more, this time out of surprised confusion. There was still the same alley between the brick walls in front of her, only that the walls looked a lot darker than before – and that the light was gone from the back wall. It then hit her that it was darker in general. Turning around, the redhead found herself looking at the same street she had been heading from earlier – only that it was lighted by street lights now, instead of rays of sun. Looking up on a hunch, Lydia's eyes gazed at the sky, in order to search for the sun - only to find stars twinkling back at her.

It was night.

How could it be night?! It had been just four in the afternoon only a few seconds ago! The young woman found herself staggering back, her back colliding with the wall that had previously been on her left, butt landing on the ground, while her eyes were still glued to the clear night sky. How was that possible? Had she… somehow spaced out for a moment? Long enough for it to get dark? With that thought in mind, she pulled her mobile phone out of her messenger bag, pressing a button on the side to activate the screensaver. 16:06. According to her phone's clock, only about twenty minutes had passed since she had last checked it. So how come it was so dark…?

Taking a deep breath, trying to calm the thoughts starting to run wild in her mind, Lydia stood up and left the alley, deciding to think on it on her way to her dad's. Better to get out of there anyway, what with… whatever had just happened there. She was certain there was some logical explanation for it. _There had to be_. Was it possible that she had spaced out for a longer time without even noticing? The sun had been still high in the sky when she had entered that alley, so she thought that at least a few hours must have passed for it to get so dark… _'My legs don't really feel like I've been standing for so long…'_ She thought she had been conscious the whole time during whatever had happened, too… A bit out of it – okay, make that a lot – yes, but still aware of things.  
This was making absolutely no sense.  
Getting more confused by the minute (and not to mention quite a bit scared, as well), she decided to just hurry up and get back to her dad's place as fast as possible, cursing her curiosity along the way. She couldn't help noticing how few people and cars passed her in comparison to earlier, which only intensified the feeling of it being late in the night. A fact that didn't really help her rising unease.

Relief flooded through her when she finally arrived at the street her dad lived on. She quickly made her way down the street with its similar looking row houses and turned towards the one her dad lived at, quickly walking up the few stairs to the frontdoor. Fishing the spare key her father had given her for the duration of her stay out of her jeans pocket, she made to open the frontdoor. Yet as soon as she inserted the key, she knew something was wrong; it didn't fit all the way into the lock. Confused, she pulled it out again to try again. When it still wouldn't go all the way in, she tried turning it anyway, which, of course, didn't help. Ignoring that all the windows were dark, she pressed the lower of the two doorbells, really starting to feel scared now. A few seconds of silence passed after the doorbell could be faintly heard, and when there was still no movement after a minute, she tried the bell again. After a moment a light finally went on in the window to her right and shortly after the door was opened.

"Sorry, I—" The rest of the sentence never left her mouth as she caught sight of the person who had opened the door. It was a middleaged woman wearing a pink dressing gown, a rather annoyed and confused expression on her face. Lydia found herself gaping at the unexpected view.

"Do you know what time it is?", the woman asked in a slightly crossed tone.

"I.. sorry, I…", Lydia stammered, trying to make sense of the situation while her mind went blank. "I'm, uh… I'm looking for Daniel Rayne?"

"Rayne? Here lives no one with the name Rayne, you must have gotten the house wrong."

The woman was about to close the door again, so Lydia quickly added, "But this is number 15, isn't it?" Of course it was, she recognized the building, the street. This _was_ the correct house, she knew it. She still found herself asking, anyway.

"Yes. But there's no Daniel Rayne here, just the Browns and me and my son. I'm telling you you got the wrong house." The door was being closed now, Lydia only caught a muttered "Really, kids nowadays getting so drunk they even get the homes wrong", before it finally fell shut in front of her nose.

For a moment the young woman simply kept standing on the spot, staring at the wooden door. Slowly her eyes found their way to the doorbells on her right. Dazedly, the redhead pulled her phone out of her messnger bag, shining the light of its display on the nameplates. There, the upper one said _Brown_ while the lower one said… "Williams", she whispered, not quite believing what her eyes were seeing.

Still dazed, she took a few staggering steps back until she found herself back on the pavement. She kept staring at the dark house in front of her for a moment, the single light in the window turning off again. Swallowing, Lydia raised her phone and opened her contacts in order to call her dad. Completely ignoring the apparent time of night, all thoughts concentrated on sorting out the confusion, she waited for him to pick up. The call had been unanswered for long enough that she had already been anticipating the voice mailbox answering, when there was finally a short crackle and a gruff voice asking, "H'lo?"

Lydia's breath got caught in her throat – something about that voice sounded wrong. When she didn't answer immediately, the gruff voice continued, "Who is it?"

This was wrong. That wasn't her father's voice. It was too different, even for being distorted by sleepiness.

She swallowed again, already fearing the answer of the question she was about to ask. "Is… is this Daniel Rayne?"

A groan, then; "No, you got the wrong number." Some muttering about being woken up at this ungodly hour followed, before the call was ended.

Lydia stared at the phone, the display of the light fading out after a few seconds, her heart beating wildly in her chest. What the hell was going on?! Had she gotten the number wrong? But she had called straight from her contact list, and just yesterday it had been working! Quickly she opened her contacts again, this time calling her mother. She'd ask if maybe her dad had changed his number or something… even if that didn't explain how the number could be taken up again so soon, but still. That was the only reason she could think of. A few seconds until the connection was established, then; the mailbox. Her mobile was turned off. _'Well, it _is_ late at night… apparently.'_ She'd simply have to call on the landline then. Squashing any guilt she might have felt about waking her mum up, Lydia dialed the familiar number, making sure to get the country code right. It took a few seconds again to establish the connection, and when it did, her heart skipped a beat. A recorded message of a polite female voice informed her that the number she had dialed was not available. Regaining her bearings after the initial shock, she tried again – and got the recorded message again. Heart beating even faster, she double checked the number – it _was_ right! Country code and all! So why wasn't it available?!

Lydia decided to try one more number, almost afraid to fail again yet desperate to try at the same time. The seconds until the connection was established felt like minutes, but then the dial tone sounded and after only a few rings her call was answered.

_"Hello?"_

Lydia's legs gave in in relief to the familiar male voice and she sank to the ground with a sigh, switching to German. _"Sorry for calling so late, Wolfgang, but there's something really wrong…"_

A brief moment, then; _"…Who's there?"_

Hesitating for a moment (why didn't he recognize her voice?), she replied, _"It's me. Lydia."_

_"Lydia who?"_

Lydia could feel the blood drain from her face. _"…Lydia! Lydia Rayne! You know, your _best friend_?", _she added with a nervous giggle that sounded more like a squeak to her own ears.

Another short pause. _"Sorry, I don't know any Lydia."_

Lydia gasped at that statement; he actually sounded serious. _"What the hell, Wolfgang…?! Please, this isn't funny, I—"_

The call was ended.

Lydia stared unseeingly ahead of her, eyes wide, the beeping from the closed connection ringing in her ear. Ending the call on her side, too, she let out a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding.  
Was this all some kind of sick joke…?  
She opened her phone's menu and texted a message.

_{Please don't joke with me, Wolfgang, this is really serious. Something happened. I'm starting to get really, propperly scared.}_

Sending it away, the girl let her head hang between her jeans clad knees. This couldn't be happening. Wolfgang would never pull such a bad joke on her, never. Just what the hell was going on? Lydia took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She was sure he was going to call any second now to apologize and assure her that everything was okay.

Her phone alerted her to a new message after a few minutes, making Lydia snap her head up again. Her fingers flew over the display opening the message.

_{Either you have the wrong number, or stop the prank. No idea who you are. Please leave me alone.}_

She stared unblinkingly at the words, trying to get her head around them. They began to swim in front of her eyes after a while, and only when a single tear had dropped on the display, did she realize she was crying from the strain of not blinking. Her breathing was coming harder now. She was confused to no end, scared and felt completely lost. This couldn't be happening. It just wasn't making any sense! Her whole world seemed to have gone crazy and she didn't know what to do! She could feel her breathing spinning out of control, so she tried to calm down. Taking deep, long breaths, she concentrated on just getting it back under control for the moment.  
When she felt like she wasn't about to hyperventilate anymore, Lydia slowly stood up, only to discover she was a little wobbly on her legs, thanks to the small adrenaline rush from the rising panic. Taking it slowly, she began making her way back to the nearest tube station, passing the now completely dark alley from before with some nervous unease. It looked perfectly normal and empty, nothing out of the ordinary, so she simply walked on.

She decided to go home.

Screw having already paid for a plane ticket that would take her there in a week, she'd just buy another one. Or a train ticket, there were some trains to Germany that went to the city she lived in with only a single switching in Brussels and would take only about five hours. All she wanted now was to go back home and be in the reassuring safety of her apartment. Somewhere in the back of her mind she realized that she was probably being hasty and unrational and should maybe just… try again in the morning, or something, but she just wanted to go home right now. That plan was the only thing keeping her somewhat grounded at the moment, she'd deal with everything else afterwards.

Arriving at the tube station, though, made her aware of a problem in her plans; she had forgotten that the tube didn't operate all night, being used to a lot of of the subway lines in her home city running 24 hours a day. Lydia became even more nervous, as she wasn't very keen on walking around alone at night. To her relief she spotted a bus station with a night bus line nearby that would take her to Victoria Station. The bus arrived after only a ten minute wait, which she was rather glad about.

During the bus ride, the redhead considered her next line of action. She'd have to find a cashpoint and make a small withdrawal for the train ride to the airport, since her travelcard wasn't valid on the airport express and she knew she didn't have enough cash for a ticket with her right now. She would ask if it would be possible to pay for the plane ticket with her bank card at the airport desk, since she didn't like the idea of carrying so much cash with her. (She only took a little with her when she went out without any real plans for that very reason, most of the cash she had exchanged in advance in Germany was left in her room at her dad's place for safekeeping. But it wasn't like she could get to it right now…) Well, that, and she really didn't want to pay the foreign bank fees for such a high withdrawal, hoping they wouldn't be quite so high if she paid directly with her card._  
That's right, keep thinking in logical, rational ways'_, a small voice in the back of her mind advised. These were realistic problems, problems she could actually work out. So she concentrated on that line of thought for the moment to keep her mind somewhat grounded in this unexplainable situation she found herself in.

Arriving at Victoria Station, it took her a while to locate a cashpoint since she didn't know her way around all that well. Spotting one after a little wandering around, she made a beeline for the machine and pulled out her wallet. She put her bank card into the slot, waiting a few seconds for the machine to read it – before it was pushed out again with an error message shown on the screen. Frowning, Lydia pulled it out, making sure that the magnetic stripe was on the right side as it was displayed on a sticker on the machine. It was. She tried putting it in again, only for it to be pushed out again with the message that it wasn't readable. Her heartbeat was quickening again as she tried turning the card around and putting it in every other possible way. No success. What the hell, those were the kind of cashpoints she had withdrawn money from before! So it should be working with her foreign card! She tried another machine right next to the one she had been using, but had no more luck with it. Getting more anxious by the minute, Lydia looked for other machines in the station, trying out the ones she could find, but with the same result, until she noticed some security staff taking an interest in her. When the man started making his way towards her, she felt like she was about to panic for some reason, not knowing how to go about the whole situation and explain herself without looking crazy, and hastily left the station.

She turned down a street, walking quickly to get away from the security guard and any possible questions she was not quite sure she would able to answer in her current state. Maybe talking to some officials about her situation should have been her first approach, but somehow the fear of getting into trouble for spouting crazy nonsense with a bank card that was't readable was making her walk the other way. It didn't help that her line of thought was beginning to drift towards less rational ideas and questions at that, either. If her contacts were wrong and her bank card too… what else could be wrong…? Her ID? Her home adress? Well, considering her dad's apparently was…

Maybe she was afraid to be thought of as crazy because she actually _was_ losing her mind…?

That unbidden thought made her stop dead in her tracks.  
_'No, stop',_ she mentally chided herself before her thoughts continued down that line. If she continued on like that and gave in to the panic, she'd be completely done for. And then she wouldn't be able to function at all in order to find a way out of this mess, and she just couldn't let that happen now. Taking a shaky breath, she pushed the thought away. She just had to go on, everything was going to sort itself out. Somehow.  
Raising her head, she took a look around and noticed she was close to the Victoria Coach Station. There were several people milling around, tourists by the look of the suitcases most had with them, and as Lydia got closer to the station she could see more people behind the well-lit glass front, a lot of them sleeping on seats and some even in sleeping bags on the ground. The young woman bit her lip considering her next step. It didn't seem very wise to wander around London alone at night. This seemed to be a fairly safe way to spend the night and wait for the morning, considering how many people there were…

Having made her decision, Lydia entered the building and found a free spot in a small corner of a closed shop that protruded from a wall, sat down and leaned against the walls, knees pulled up to her chest. As she let her eyes roam over the various resting people, her thoughts soon returned to the mess she found herself in. How should she go on from here? Apparently she couldn't get any money, at least not from any machines… Then again, maybe there was just some techical problem with them? She had been able to withdraw money from them last year… Or maybe there was simply some change in policies and they no longer accepted foreign crads? It might be worth to try her luck in a bank, ask what to do in order to get some money from her account. So far, so good. But after that, what? Was she really just going to go home, back to Germany? Without all her stuff? Without—… _'Damn!'_, she mentally cursed. Her keys where in her suitcase at her dad's! Her mother had a spare one to her apartment, but still… She lived a few towns away from her. Lydia sighed, letting her head rest between her knees and running a hand through her dyed red her hair, further lossening up some strands from the lose updo with the gesture.  
Maybe she should just try her dad's place again in the morning, after all? Maybe she really had gotten the house wrong? Even if it had looked the same… Still, it had been dark, and she hadn't been thinking very clearly, so maybe she had really just gotten it wrong in her flustered state…? She felt that she was probably just clutching at straws, but what else was she to do? Deciding to just give it another try later and then see where to go from there, Lydia tried to calm her frayed mind. The previous adrenaline rushes soon took their toll on her resting body and she found herself falling asleep.

* * *

When Lydia woke up, it was light outside the glass front, the station bustling with some activity. Massaging a kink out of her neck – that really hadn't been the best of positions to fall asleep in – she relieved herself in the toilet and redid her hair, before sitting down in one of the free seats and trying her mobile again. She had been half hoping that she really just had been getting things mixed up last night, but when she tried calling her dad, the same foreign gruff voice from before had answered. Her mum's mobile was still turned off, so Lydia just left a voice message on the mailbox asking her to call back as soon as possible. She had also tried calling her acquaintance who she was supposed to meet again today, but the number hadn't been available. Putting the phone away again and feeling oddly numb at the results, the redhead rubbed her arms. Her light pullover didn't provide much warmth in the morning chill paired with her just having woken up. She could really use a hot coffee right now. At the thought of coffee her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything in quite a while. Funny how she could still get hungry in a situation like that. Taking her wallet out of her messenger back, she checked how much money she still had on her; around eight pounds. Enough for some light breakfast, at least. _'Well, might as well go and use it.' _She tried convincing herself that she wasn't just trying to put off going to her dad's place again in fear that he still wasn't where he was supposed to be. She only succeeded partially in that.

Lydia only had to walk the streets for a few minutes until she found an open bistro that looked inviting - and not too expensive. Sitting down at one of the many free tables near the entrance, she checked the menu and ordered her coffee and some food she could afford. Absentmindedly sipping the hot beverage, she found herself wondering about her numbness. Compared to last night she felt oddly… calm? Was that the right word? In any case, she didn't feel nearly as panicky as before. Maybe the sleep had helped? Or maybe she just wasn't awake enough for the situation to truly sink in yet?  
She was startled out of her musings, as someone suddenly plopped down in the chair next to her. Looking up from her cup in surprise to face the person, she was greeted with an overly cheery "Hello!" - and froze at the sight.

Sitting there, giving her a toothy grin, was someone she instantly recognized from television; David Tennant. The fact that he was in his Doctor outfit - complete with pinstriped suit, brown coat and 3D-glasses resting on his unruly hair - considerably helped the quick recognition. Lydia found herself gaping at him, mind going blank, as the man put some flashing device, that looked like a prop straight out of the series, in front of him on the table. A few seconds passed like that, him grinning at her while she simply stared at him, trying to get her brain to work, until he spoke again, all business-like as if they were in a perfectly normal conversation. "Where are you from then?"

She blinked.

What the heck was this about? David Tennant playing Doctor to some random person?! Had she ended up in some kind of hidden camera show? Lydia took a quick look around the small bistro, not noting anything out of the ordinary. The only other customer was reading a newspaper at his table, the waiter working on a coffee machine behind the counter. She returned her attention to the man next to her, finding him still looking at her intently. It could be, couldn't it? As far as she knew, the actor was known to play pranks on people… A thought occurred to her then; this had to be the reason behind her current situation! It was all part of some huge, complex TV hoax, with her friends and family playing along! Her pulse quickened at this conclusion, which pushed all other thoughts aside as she wanted to believe that to be the case.

-TBC-

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_**A/N²:** I admit I still have to get used to writing this version of Lydia, since this is sort of a fresh start for that particular OC. She's actually already a few years old and has been played in some casual tabletop roleplays by me for another fandom, thus her personality has been sculpted in certain ways that do not quite apply here anymore. But the basics are still the same, and I'll just have to re-invent her in this story based on them, let's see were we'll end up with that :)_  
_I just wanted to let you know and ask for you to bear with me, should there be moments were she comes across a little weird. Thank you!_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N:**__ Ah, I actually got some reviews! :D Thank you, I'm glad this thing piqued your interest!:)_

_I merged part 2 and 3 into this chapter, since the former one was rather short and basically only had some dialogue as content._  
_This means that from here on there exists no already written next part, since I'll give the poll a little time to decide on the next way of action. It also means that __**from here one updates will be quite sporadic**__ and can take me a while (I have to admit that I tend to be a rather slow updater...). I'd like to apologise for that in advance and thank you for your patience._

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_[In the last part:]  
What the heck was this about? David Tennant playing Doctor to some random person?! Had she ended up in some kind of hidden camera show? Lydia took a quick look around the small bistro, not noting anything out of the ordinary. The only other customer was reading a newspaper at his table, the waiter working on a coffee machine behind the counter. She returned her attention to the man next to her, finding him still looking at her intently. It could be, couldn't it? As far as she knew, the actor was known to play pranks on people… A thought occurred to her then; this had to be the reason behind her current situation! It was all part of some huge, complex TV hoax, with her friends and family playing along! Her pulse quickened at this conclusion, which pushed all other thoughts aside as she wanted to believe that to be the case. _

* * *

After wordlessly staring at the man sitting next to her for a few more seconds, a sudden snort escaped Lydia at the realisation of just having been pranked (in quite an extraordinary way, she might add). She hid her face in her hands, elbows resting on the small table, as her shoulders shook in barely suppressed laughter, just on the edge of becoming hysterical. The extreme relief she felt at the explanation to her situation and the knowledge that her world would go back to normal now, was making her almost giddy with the sudden roller coaster of emotions she found herself in. Gone was the numbness from before.  
When she looked up again a moment later, red-faced and eyes slightly watery from laughing (and probably being a little emotional, too, she admitted to herself) she found him still looking at her, his face now a mask of confusion. "Oh god", she chuckled, "I completely fell for that! You really got me there." Her mouth relaxed into a small grin and she was becoming a little nervous now as it was starting to truly sink in just who she was talking to.

The actor frowned at her words. "What?"

Lydia couldn't help raising an eyebrow at his in-character reaction. "Oh come on, you can drop the act. I've figured it out."

David's (she decided to just call him by his first name in her mind) mouth opened, his lips forming a small 'o', as he tilted his head back slightly, still regarding her with some confusion. "Really now?"

"Well, yeah, wasn't really that hard. I mean", another grin spread over her lips as she pointed her hand up and down his form, "You kinda gave it away with that look."

His eyes followed her hand and then looked down at himself. "Why, what's wrong with how I look?"

Lydia simply blinked at his reply. "Seriously?" When he just continued staring indignantly at her, his left eyebrow up high, she began to frown herself. It looked like he wouldn't just drop the act as she had suggested, and she wondered why that would be. An idea occurred to her then; Since they had obviously put so much effort into this hoax-thing, they probably expected some… material to fill their show with.  
The redhead closed her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath. "Alright then, guess I'll just have to play along a little?" She only got another frown as a reply, so she decided to just go with it. She wasn't quite sure if she felt more annoyed or excited with the new situation she now found herself in. A little bit of both, she supposed. At least now she knew that everything would be okay again once this whole thing was over, which was a huge relief. Oh, there would be quite a talk with her dad, and Wolfgang was going to get an earful for scaring the shit out of her, but now that she knew it was all just a joke, maybe she might even try to enjoy herself a little? Her nerves were already beginning to make her feel a little silly, so what the hell.

Lydia dropped her gaze back to the food and half-full cup of coffee in front of her. "Uhm… would it be okay if I finished my breakfast first before we go on with this… thing? I _am_ rather hungy…", she admitted. _'Thanks to you people making me fret and run around London the whole night'_, she silently added.

David blinked in momentary surprise at her, before giving her a smile. "Oh, yah, of course!"

He was taking the 3D-glasses off his head as Lydia took a sip from her now lukewarm coffee, folding them and putting them into a pocket of his suit. Just as he had put them away, the waiter who had served her before approached their table. Lydia watched the man's reaction as he came to a stop in front of them, looking at David and asking if he could get anything for him. She silently applauded the waiter's control of not showing any sign of recognition of the actor in his rather famous outfit, as he took David's order of tea. Then again, maybe he really didn't recognize him… _'Or he's in on the prank.'_

When Lydia reached for the sandwich on her plate, her grey eyes caught sight of the prop like looking device lying next to it. Some of its small lights were still flashing. David seemed to notice her looking at it and put a long-fingered hand on the device, patting it lightly.

"That's an energy detector. Works great on locating energy signatures that originate from Rift activity." He was staring at her intently, apparently waiting for some kind of reaction from her. His lips were parted, revealing the underside of his tongue which was touching the roof of his mouth.

Lydia just raised her eyebrows a little at his explanation, sandwich held still in front of her mouth. "Uh, okay…" It was almost a little eery how well he was playing the Doctor part, the look he was giving her actually made her shiver a little with its intensity. Well, she had to give him that; David Tennant still had the Doctor persona down to a T, even after having been out of the role for a while now.  
He held her gaze for a while longer, seeming to search for something in her eyes, until the waiter returned with his ordered tea. The actor moved the device to the edge of the table to make room for the tea, and the eye contact was broken. Clearing her throat a little awkwardly - '_What had that been about?'_ - Lydia finally took a bite out of her sandwich. The next few minutes passed in silence while she finished her breakfast, her eyes roaming all over the place not wanting to stare at the man, the nervousness at the company she was in now really having settled in the pit of her stomach.  
She still hadn't been able to make out any cameras. They were apparently really good at hiding them.

When she had finished her sandwich and emptied her cup, the silence between them soon began to feel quite awkward to her. Lydia decided to try doing a little more small-talk about the situation and maybe worm some information about the show out of David before plunging herself into the hoax. She put a napkin she had used to clean her mouth with on the plate and cleared her throat awkwardly. "So… before we really get into this, anything I should know? Any specific kind of behaviour expected or something…?"

David put his cup down after taking a sip of his steaming tea, his brows furrowed into a frown. "What do you mean?"

"Well… This is quite an… unusal situation, so I suppose I should be showing some kind of reaction? I mean, apart from going through quite the bit of shock and panic last night", she commented, not quite able to keep the slightly accusing tone out of her voice. There was no denying that the joke had been more than just a little exaggerated, after all. "Or is it okay that I already figured it out?", she added in an afterthought.

He continued staring at her with the same frown. "I really don't know why you'd ask _me_ how you should be behaving."

"I- well-…" She frowned herself a little now. It didn't look like she'd be getting any informations out of him. Taking a deep breath, she decided on trying to simply roll along in that case. "Alright. I'll just follow your lead then, I guess."

The actor blinked in surprise at her sudden change in response, but seemed to take this as his cue as he took another quick gulp of his tea (she almost winced, it must have surely still been quite hot) while fishing some coins out of a pocket in his coat and putting them on the table, before rising up from his seat. Following his example, Lydia got her wallet out and placed the right amount of money next to his, feeling a little bad for not being able to leave much of a tip, before grabbing her messenger bag and nervously following him out of the bistro. He was waiting at the door, holding it open for her, and she mumbled a quick "Thanks" before slipping past him. The girl took a look around outside, trying to catch a glimpse of a camera somewhere, but didn't have any luck. They were really good at this - but then again, that was the whole point of hidden cameras, right? You weren't supposed to be able to spot them.  
She was pulling the strap of her bag over her shoulder when a whirring sound pulled her out of her thoughts. Turning her head to her right where the sound was coming from, she saw David pointing his sonic screwdriver – with glowing blue tip and all (_'They even got him one with sound for this!'_) – over the length of her bag. When he noticed her looking at him with raised brows, he commented, "Oh, don't mind me", before holding the prop close to his face, mimicking reading the scan as he did in the series, and frowned once again.

Lydia couldn't help commenting on it, slightly amused at the gesture despite her nervousness. "Didn't find what you're looking for?"

He took a sidelong glance at her and the ghost of a smile playing around the corners of her mouth, before placing the screwdriver back into the inside pocket of his coat with a sniff. "Fancy a little walk?", he countered her question, while burrowing his hands in his pockets.

In response she simply shrugged – really, what else was she supposed to do other than follow him? – and made an "after you" gesture with her hand. They walked the first few minutes in (in her case slightly awkward) silence, and Lydia soon found the morning to be still rather chilly. She crossed her arms in an attempt to warm herself, her shoulders slightly hunched.

"Forgot to bring suitable clothing with you?"

The sarcastic tone in his voice miffed her a little. "Well it's not like I was prepared to be spending so much time outside, now was I?", she shot back.

David simply raised a brow at this and then continued on in silence. Lydia felt a little bad about being snappish with the actor, but that comment really had been uncalled for. It was their fault she wasn't able to get to her clothes and put a jacket on, after all. The walk continued on in silence, her snappy remark had apparently shut him up, which made her feel even more bad. _'Here you are, actually getting to spend time with a famous actor playing a favourite role, and what are you doing? Being snappish. Way to go, Lydia.'_  
The situation wasn't at all how Lydia had expected it to be; she had thought something would happen to bring an element of action into the show, since that was probably the whole point of it, right? But so far they had been only walking. Then again, maybe he was leading her to some place they had prepared? He did seem to be following a set route…  
And another thing that confused her was the silence. Yes, she had probably cut off his attempt at small talk earlier, but David had been so very in-character before. Shouldn't he be babbling away anyway in his role?

She was just about to bring up some small talk herself, worrying that she might have offended him, when they came into familiar surroundings. The redhead snuck a peek at the man walking next to her, waiting for some kind of reaction from him, but he simply went on in a determined stride, looking straight ahead, his face neutral. They passed a familiar tube station and when they were nearing the alley where she had seen the strange light the day before, she slowed her pace, falling behind a little. So this was where they were headed to? It would make sense, since that was where things had begun to go weird.

As if to prove her assumption right, David stopped at the entrance of the alley. He turned towards her and simply stood there, watching her expectantly with his hands still in his pockets. _'Guess it's about to really start then…'_ When she also came to a stop a few metres away from him, staring at him for a few seconds, unsure what she was supposed to do, he prompted, "Well?"

Lydia nervously fiddled with the edge of her messenger bag - his eyes flicked down at her hand at the movement - not knowing what was expected of her. "Well what?"

He kept staring at her with that carefully neutral expression. "Nothing to say?" His voice sounded a little doubtful, though.

Her eyes started roaming over the sight in front of her, trying to see if she could make out a camera or anything out of the ordinary. There had been nothing unusual in the alley that she thought she would've been expected to react to – well, other than David Tennant dressed as the Doctor, of course. It was only when she returned her gaze to him in the center of the entrance that she caught a flicker of something blue in front of the waste bins next to the right wall out of the corner of her eye. The colour seemed out of place to what she remembered, and when she looked directly at it, she gasped. How the hell had she missed it before?! A familiar blue, wooden Police Box was standing just a little behind David! Lydia felt a grin form on her lips. No wonder he had been waiting for a some kind of reaction from her. "The TARDIS, _of course_! What else had I been expecting?", she asked more to herself.

His response was a little unexpected, though. He looked at her in slight surprise for a brief moment, before composing his features back to a neutral expression, asking, "You know about the TARDIS?"

Lydia couldn't help giving him a look. "Well I know you, so of course I'd know of the TARDIS." She hadn't pretended not to recognise David for the show, so this really shouldn't be coming as a surprise. She had assumed they would simply treat her as a fan being surprised and getting a treat by the "Doctor" in it, or something along the lines. Her eyes lightened up, excitement building inside her again at the sight of the blue box, and she found herself stepping closer to it and the man. "Does that mean I get to take a peek inside the TARDIS? I've always wondered what the interior actually looks like…"  
There was a moment of silence while she was drinking in the sight of the actual TARDIS from the show. She was so going to ask if she could take a picture in front if it later! Maybe even with David if he agreed?

"Ohhh… So that's what this is about then? Here to get into my TARDIS, hm?" David's voice had gone more quiet, carrying a dark tone with it.

Surprised at the sudden change in his tone, Lydia turned towards him only to find him standing right next to her, his face serious. His hand suddenly shot up, grabbing her bag and pulling its strap effortlessly over her head in a smooth move, taking advantage of the rather big difference in height between them. Dumbfounded by the sudden action, she only found her voice when he opened it and started going through her things. "Hey!"

"Who sent you?" He was taking out her mobile phone as he asked the question, pointing the sonic screwdriver at it. "Torchwood? Not yet tired of meddling around with the Void, are they?", he asked without taking his eyes off her phone. After a moment he changed his grip on the screwdriver and began to look through her phone with his fingers, activating the touch screen. "You'd think they'd learned their lesson…", he mumbled in an almost distracted way.

Lydia was so stunned at the sudden change of his demeanour – and the act of him going through her personal belongings – that for a moment she simply gaped at him, not knowing how to react. Was this the beginning of the play for the show then? But even so— "HEY! You can't just go through my stuff!" She made a grab for her bag, but he simply pulled it out of her reach.

"Oh yes I can. Doing it right this moment, in fact", he simply retorted, browsing through her phone.

She found herself gaping at him again. Just because he was in costume, didn't mean that he could do whatever he wanted! When she saw that he was going through the text messages in her phone - _'What the hell!'_ - she got angry. "That's _private_!", she snapped. And was ignored, as he simply went back to looking through her bag after a moment. "Okay, this is quite enough! This is going way beyond any boundaries of a prank!"

David looked up from running the sonic screwdriver through her bag, still looking quite serious. "Prank?"

"Yes! You can stop now and cut me out of the show or whatever this was staged for." She took a moment to calm herself, the emotional exhaustion finally starting to catch up with her. She had barely slept, been played by her fear, pushed from panic to nervous excitement and now anger by being bereft of her privacy, just so random strangers behind the telly could have a laugh at her. Enough was enough. She couldn't help feeling a touch of disappointment in herself, though. It was a rare opportunity to be part of something special like this after all, and finding herself not quite meeting up to her own expectations of simply going along with it and enjoying it while it lasted was rather disappointing.  
"It's not that I don't appreciate being a part of it, but…" She sighed and drew a hand through her pinned up hair, not quite able to find the words. God, she felt beyond awkward at failing so spectacularly to take a prank in stride, even if it was pushing boundaries.

Several moments passed in silence after her small outburst, David frowning at her with her bag and the screwdriver still in his hands. "You've completely lost me there", he finally stated.

Lydia couldn't help rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Please, can't you just drop it for a moment?"

"Drop what?"

"That Doctor-act."

"_Act_?", he asked, taken aback. "I think you've got something mixed up there. I _am_ the Doctor."

"Right", she replied, pointing her thumb over her shoulder towards the blue box. "And that TARDIS over there is actually bigger on the inside", she deadpanned.

He didn't answer, simply kept on looking at her with the same seriousness. When his expression still didn't change after a few seconds, she crossed her arms. "Fine, prove it then." Maybe _that_ would finally get him out of his act.

"And let you in? Oh, wouldn't you just like that", he mocked her.

Feeling annoyed at his stubbornness to drop the Doctor-act, Lydia decided to counter him on that very same line. "What, afraid that I will run away with it? I thought stupid little humans weren't capable of flying a TARDIS. So what is there to be afraid of about me taking a look?", she challenged him.

"They aren't", he simply replied. "But enough of the games." He took a step towards her, towering over her small frame, and the intense look in his eyes actually managed to make her feel a little unsettled. He really _was_ a good actor, even if that fact was a cause of annoyance to her right now.  
"Who are you working for and where is the device you used to breach the Void?"

* * *

Lydia blinked at the unexpected question, and wondered how she should go about it:

**a)** continue on the Doctor-act-line challenging him to prove himself, so he'll have no choice but to drop the act at some point

**b) **ask him once more to drop the act and stop the prank since it was beginning not to be funny anymore

(The poll can be found at the top of the profile page.)


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N:**__ Oh, there were two votes in the poll! Thank you for voting! :) This actually motivated me to update more quickly than usually.  
It ended up as a draw, though, so I used a dice to decide on the result. So here we go..._

* * *

_[In the last part:]_

_"Who are you working for and where is the device you used to breach the Void?"_

* * *

Lydia groaned at the question and closed her eyes for a moment, rubbing the bridge of her nose. Didn't he realise that it was beginning to not be funny anymore in the least? "Please, Mister Tennant, stop the charade. I really meant it when I said I want to be out of whatever this was staged for."

David's expression didn't change, though. "Whatever games you're trying to play won't work, so you may as well stop trying to distract me. Tampering with the walls of the universe is one of the things I do not take lightly." The dark tone in his voice hadn't changed, either.

She stared at him in bewilderment, not quite believing he was still stubbornly keeping up the act. Wasn't there some kind of "code" to signal that she wasn't up for the hoax? Was calling him by his real name not enough? "No really, stop it please! This is no longer fun and I do no want to be part of this thing, alright!" The last part wasn't directed at David himself, but more at their general surroundings, to any cameras that might be hidden.

"You're quite stubborn, aren't you?"

Lydia gaped at the remark. To hear that from him! She tried to keep her voice as calm as possible when she spoke. "Listen, I've really had enough of this. This prank, or whatever this is supposed to be, is more than pushing boundaries, and I do not want to be part of it anymore. I wasn't kidding when I said that I went through quite the bit of shock and panic last night. So I'm kindly asking you, and the team, to stop this now and return everything to order. I'd really like to go home, take a long shower and get some real sleep." The last bit tumbled out of her mouth without really meaning to, but she didn't care anymore. All she cared about, was that he finally realised that she was being serious about it.

The actor gazed at her thoughtfully before offering Lydia's messenger bag to her. She took it back, thanking him stiffly, and watched as he crossed his arms.

"Fine. Tell me what you believe this is about then."

Oh, _really_? He still wouldn't give up? Still, it was a start. "I _believe_", she sarcastically emphasised, "That you're playing the Doctor for some kind of hidden camera show. And for some weird reason I was picked as the 'victim'. I wonder who of my friends or family got the idea to enrol me for that, and how you got them all to play along with it..." She watched him with raised eyebrows, hoping to maybe get an answer to the unasked question.

A few moments passed in silence while Lydia waited for his reaction.

"Is this the best you can come up with?" He neither sounded nor looked very impressed.

Lydia felt frustration bubbling up in her. "Oh, what the hell! Why can't you just stop playing that role?!"

"I'm not the one playing a role here", he calmly replied.

The young woman made a frustrated sound at the turn in conversation. If he wanted to stubbornly cling to his role, then so be it. She was quite through with this pointless discussion. "You know what, I'm out. It was nice meeting you, Mister Tennant." With that she turned on the spot and begin walking away from the alley, frustrated with the whole situation. If talking didn't help, then maybe action would finally make them see reason.

"Oi!"

She had only walked a few steps, when she heard David catching up with her.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home to my dad's place", she replied without looking at him. "And if I have to threaten that actress you people have placed there with the police to let me in, then trust me, I will."

"What?", came the confused response behind her right shoulder.

"I mean it. This is currently also my home, with my belongings in there, and no actress or TV company has a right to keep me out", she said with a hint of anger in her voice. "I can't believe you went so far as to change the lock", she added with a look at him. "I mean, _really_?"

David surprised her by keeping up with her, she'd thought he would have called a stop to it all by now. That, or just let her go. But he kept on walking next to her, seeming to contemplate something as he watched her from the side.

"What is the last thing you remember before the... prank started?" Lydia shot him a look, to which he simply added, "Humour me."

Well, it wasn't like she had anything to lose, so with a sigh she decided to give in to his request. "I was on my way home to my dad's, when I stopped at that alley back there. I've noticed a strange light at the back wall, and when I got close to it, it sort of... grew around me? How did you guys do that, anyway? Did you hide spotlights or something? And how did you..." She hesitated before continuing the question, a little unease returning now that she was thinking back to that moment. She swallowed, then continued, "How did you make the time pass without me noticing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I entered the alley it was afternoon, but the next time I looked up when I was no longer blinded by the light, it was night?" She glanced at him, still feeling a little unsettled with the memory of feeling like she was falling for a second. And, really, how _had_ they done it? She really thought she had been conscious the whole time...

David ignored her question after a brief moment of silence, countering it with another one. "What happened then?"

"What, did no one tell you?", she couldn't help asking with a slightly sarcastic tone, a little unhappy with her questions being ignored while he kept on asking more himself. She decided to continue humouring him, maybe hearing it from her point of view would make him realise to just what extent the boundaries had been pushed. "I tried getting into my dad's house, only to find that my house key no longer fit and that colleague of yours answering the doorbell instead of my father, telling me he didn't live there. My phone contacts turned out to be useless – and may I mention again how this, too, is quite exaggerated for a TV hoax? – so without having anywhere to go and starting to panic, I roamed the streets and ended up spending the rest of the night in a coach station. After that I went to get some breakfast, and the rest should be familiar to you."

They were nearing the street her father lived on now, and when she looked at David again, she found him apparently deep in thought. A small hope begin blossoming in her; had she maybe succeeded in making him finally see reason? They were entering the street while she waited for his reaction, but then something caught her eye. The same middleaged woman from before was leaving her dad's house – and yes, it really was the right one as Lydia could now clearly see in the daylight – getting into an unfamiliar car and driving away. Had they finally decided to give up and told the woman to leave? The hope in Lydia was growing, and she felt a small victorious grin forming on her lips. "Speak of the devil; there she goes. I do hope my dad is home now to explain things."

David's eyes followed the car until it turned around the corner, before glancing at the much smaller redhead. "Well, shall we find out and see?" Without waiting for a reply, he went ahead and bounced up the few stairs to the door of house number fifteen. "Which doorbell?"

"The lower one", Lydia answered. She was a little disappointed to see that it was still labled with the name "Williams".

David pressed it and they heard the doorbell ringing, followed by the sound of a door being opened inside. When the front door was opened, Lydia found the growing hope inside her die again. A teenaged boy, probably around fourteen, was standing in the doorway, looking them over.

"Hello!" David chirped cheerily, his whole demeanour suddenly changed again. He turned towards Lydia, probably waiting for her to continue, but when he saw her simply staring at the boy with a deep frown on her face, he went on. "Terribly sorry for the sudden disturbance, but my friend here", he motioned his hand at Lydia, "Used to live in this house once and would really love to get a chance to have look inside, for nostalgic reasons. Would it be too much of a bother to give her a minute or two to take a quick look around?"

The boy looked at them warily, appearing not to be all too sure how to react to this situation. "Uh, I don't know... I mean, I don't even know you or anything..."

"Oh, it's quite alright", David replied, while looking for something in the inside pocket of his coat. "I'm an estate agent for this district, this young lady here asked me to help her find her childhood home. See?" He pulled out a small, black leather wallet and held it open to him. "You would really do her a great favour."

The boy leaned in closer and took a look at it. "I suppose, if it's just a minute...", he finally gave in.

Lydia almost rolled her eyes at the psychic paper number. _'Great, another actor then... When are they going to give this up?' _She was beginning to feel really annoyed, her patience wearing thin. But then again, they had to stop it at this point, right? It wasn't like they could hold the hoax up much longer once they were inside.

The door was further opened for them to step through and David was quick to follow the boy in. Lydia frowned at the assortment of unfamiliar shoes standing outside the door to her dad's apartment, but chose to ignore it in favour of following the actors inside. She was almost prepared for a camera team awaiting her inside, to confront her about her experience.

What she wasn't prepared for, was a completely different interior decoration.

Lydia stood in the hallway, looking through the doorway of the living room, gaping at the sight in front of her. It looked completely different! From the furniture to wallpaper, nothing was the same! This... They couldn't have done that in just half a day, could they...? Heart racing, she practically ran to the door of the guest room she occupied during her stays, but when she opened it, the same complete change in decoration greeted her. Wrong wallpaper, wrong furniture, wrong accessories. Not one thing she recognised – apart from the window being where it was supposed to be, the one familiar thing being the view outside it.

She stared numbly at the foreign room, hand still resting on the doorhandle, her brain having trouble processing what her eyes were seeing. She was only dimly aware of David coming to a stop just behind her. A few moments passed like that, her staring in shock at the room, while he hovered over her shoulder.

"Found your room?" His quiet voice pulled her out of the blankness she had found herself in.

"Where's my stuff...?", she muttered forlornly, her mind still not quite grasping what she saw. She felt a gentle touch on her shoulder, guiding her away from the room. They went back to the front door and Lydia only dimly registered David saying a few more words to the boy, before numbly following him out to the street. It was all becoming a little too much for her. Had they really gone through the trouble of redecorating her dad's home for a hoax and hidden her things? Would they've been even able to in the short amount of time? But what did it mean if they hadn't? It had been the right house, on the right street, with the same front door and all... _What was going on?_

She had simply kept walking with him, following his lead without really taking note of their surroundings, her mind running in circles without being able to form any clear thoughts, still feeling a little numbed by the sight of the foreign rooms in the familiar house. So it took her a little by surprise to find that she had followed David into a nearby small park, who was currently taking a seat on a park bench, motioning for her to do the same. She took a seat next to him, and for a moment they simply sat there, watching a woman walking her dog pass them. When the woman got out of view, he began to speak.

"I think it's time we talked for real about what is going on here."

Oh, Lydia would like nothing more than to know what the hell was going on. Because if the only idea that made sense to her about this whole situation wasn't true, then she didn't know what to think. Her mind couldn't even begin to grasp what that would mean. So she really hoped he was finally going to clear it all up, exclaim that she had been fooled, grin while shaking her hand and apologise for all the trouble they had made her go through.

When she didn't say anything, waiting for him to go on, he continued speaking. "You know, I haven't even asked you for your name yet... Terribly rude, that."

She blinked at him, pulled out of the little scene she had just imagined. "It's Lydia."

"Right, let's try this again then; Nice to meet you, Lydia." He held out his hand for her to shake - well, at least that part of her imagination came true. When she took his slightly cooler hand in hers, he added, "I'm the Doctor. But then again, you seem to already know that. Well, more or less. I'm a little confused about whether it's actually more, or less." He frowned, only now letting go of her hand. "Care to enlighten me?"

His little speech completely shattered her hope of finally getting a straight clarification. Something inside her snapped at it, and she felt the numbness of the earlier shock give way to an emotional turmoil. "Why are you still insisting on being the Doctor?!", she demanded.

"Because I am", he simply replied.

"Yeah right", she scoffed. "And I fell through a crack in the universe, or what?" It had only dawned on her when thinking back to the happenings as she told David about them earlier, that the light in the wall had been sort of shaped like the cracks that became a theme in the later seasons of the series. Had they really planned it all through this elaborately? Did that mean they'd actually go through the trouble of redecorating and all and it could still be a hoax? That was the only thing seeming logical to her right now. She really didn't know what to think anymore, and the uncertainty about her whole situation was becoming agitating.

The look in his eyes became once more intense at her comment. "How did you get that idea?"

"Well, a light in the wall that looks like one of those cracks, you dressed up like that, things being similar and yet different at the same time? It all does fit rather nicely to the series. Whoever thought this all out is quite creative, I'll give you that."

He fixed his eyes on hers. "Series? What series?" A slight pause, then; "You've mentioned actors before...?"

The frustration bubbled again. Instead of telling her what had happened to her father's home, he still kept the charade on, going on with the stupid questions? Wasn't it obvious how this whole thing was bothering her? She could only take that much, and she was close to loosing her temper. "You know what, _fine_! Prove that you really are the Doctor, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know." Her tone already told him that she didn't believe he could actually do that. "And if you can't, I hope you'll finally stop this whole act."

His brows knitted into a frown at this. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"I don't know", she shrugged. Then she remembered something; "Right, show me the TARDIS - if it's truly bigger on the inside, I won't ever question you again." Her voice was heavy with sarcasm.

He actually seemed to consider this, which she almost found amusing. Almost.

"How do I know you aren't just trying to get into it with ulterior motives? I'm still not quite convinced you aren't working for some obscure organisation, you know." His tone at the latter part was a strange blend of jokingly serious – however he managed to do that.

Lydia rolled her eyes at him, sighing. Of course he was backing out. What else was there to expect? It wasn't like he actually could prove himself, especially not in that way. So when would he finally start getting tired of this play?

But then his next remark surprised her; "Alright. But only a few steps into it, and no getting anywhere near the console."

She blinked in surprise.

"And I expect detailed answers to all my questions", he added while giving her an expectant look. "Deal?" He raised his left brow at her.

Lydia nodded hesitantly after a second of just staring at him, still finding herself asking, "Seriously?"

He stood up and began walking away, calling over his shoulder when she didn't follow immediately. "Come on, before I change my mind."

* * *

It surprised Lydia a little to find that the man was actually leading her back to the alley, with the blue Police Box still standing in front of the wastebins. Even more so when he pulled a small silver key out of somewhere and put it into the lock. He turned it and then looked back to her, raising his eyebrow, giving her an expectant look which made her step closer. When she was close enough, he pushed the door open and made an 'after you' gesture. When the door swung open wide enough for her to look inside, Lydia felt the blood rush from her head.

There was a whole round room to see, with twisted columns circling around what looked very much like the console from the show.

For a moment she simply stood in front of the opened door, staring with her mouth hanging open, before suddenly rushing around the box. She went around it to the back, touching the wood along her way - the _vibrating_ wood, as she noted - not trusting her eyes. It was the regular size of a phone box, just the way it looked. It had taken her only a few steps to make her way around it and be standing next to the brick wall of the alley.

How was that possible?

Maybe... maybe they had sort of... projected a 3D image or something inside?  
She went back to the opened door, finding a slightly amused looking David still standing where he had been, obviously waiting for her to finish her inspection. Lydia gave him a nervous look, before gathering her courage and stepping into the box.

A few steps along the grating–  
Wait, _grating_? She looked down at her Converses clad feet, finding that she could actually see that there seemed to be a lower level beneath them. Blinking numbly at that discovery, she looked up again and let her eyes wander over the place. It actually looked like it was a real, big room, the depth of field adjusted whenver her eyes changed focus, and the idea of it being just a projected image was slowly crumbling away. There was also pulsating sound reverberating from the walls, intensifying the feeling of being inside a big room.

Lydia went back to the wall to the left of the door, running her hand over it. The texture felt real enough to what it looked like, too, and when she walked a few steps along it, she didn't encounter the limits of the box that she should be expecting from its outer appearance. Her little exploration was cut short when David's voice sounded from the center of the room.

"Is that proof enough?"

She turned around to face the actor – only, maybe he wasn't just an actor, after all...? That thought got stuck in her head, and she found herself stumbling over it, not quite ready to take in the implications. Her heart was racing again, and she was beginning to feel lightheaded. "Am I hallucinating? Because for a dream this has gone on a little too long...", she found herself muttering.

'David' watched her as she slowly, warily, made her way towards him. "I understand that the humans from this century still have a hard time accepting things and technologies that go beyond their understanding, but why is it so hard for you to accept what you're seeing as a truth? You even seem to already know about the TARDIS, after all."

Lydia let out a short, humorless laugh, running her hand through her hair in a nervous manner. "Yeah - from a show on the telly", she deadpanned. "But that's just fiction! It's not real!"

"So you have seen the TARDIS on the telly?"

"Yeah, the TARDIS, you, it's all just part of a story!"

"Wait, you have seen _me_ on the telly?"

"Yeah", she simply answered. "But... _you_ aren't David Tennant in costume, playing a prank - are you? And... and this is actually bigger on the inside...?" While stating the question, she took another look around the place, her eyes moving from the walls and console to the dome-shaped ceiling, still finding hard to believe what they were seing, before coming back to a rest on the man standing in front of her. She felt a sudden impulse to check his heartbeat to look for some kind of confirmation, and her hand automatically moved towards his chest, hovering between them. "I- Sorry, may I...?", she found herself asking, since her hand was already awkwardly up in the air, while a small voice inside her currently very loud mind demanded to know just what she was thinking she was doing.  
When he didn't protest, she put her slightly shaking hand on his chest, pressing it gingerly against his jacket and waiting for her skin to make contact to his heartbeat through the layers of cloth. Several seconds passed in tense silence, until-

_Thump-thump-thump-thump... Thump-thump-thump-thump..._

Gasping, the young woman pulled away, staggering back and almost tripping over her own feet. She stared at the man with startled, wide eyes. "Oh my god..."

-TBC?-

* * *

_**A/N²: **__I have found it a little hard to find a suitable opportunity for a poll in the happenings of this part (it ran away with me a little, I have to admit).  
So I decided to make an opening for the other option to influence the course of this story: namely being __**open for suggestions from readers**__ on what might happen next. So feel free to suggest something, should you have an idea for something you'd like to see happen/Lydia do next. If it sparks an idea in me on how to continue, and is still within bounds of her personality, I'll use it for the next part.  
If there aren't any (suitable) ideas after a while, I'll continue with one of my own. (And then I'll be hopefully able to worm in a way for you to influence her decisions again ;)_

_Speaking of Lydia's personality; I'm still struggling a little with writing her, especially as she's being thrown through these emotional ups and downs during her introduction. But it should hopefully become easier once she slowly gets more settled in her situation, with more chances to think and react more clearly. I hope she hasn't been coming across overly weird so far._

_Thanks for reading and your interest in this story! :)_


	4. Chapter 4

_[In the last part:]_

_When he didn't protest, she put her slightly shaking hand on his chest, pressing it gingerly against his jacket and waiting for her skin to make contact to his heartbeat through the layers of cloth. Several seconds passed in tense silence, until-_

_Thump-thump-thump-thump… Thump-thump-thump-thump…_

_Gasping, the young woman pulled away, staggering back and almost tripping over her own feet. She stared at the man with startled, wide eyes. "Oh my god…"_

* * *

Lydia felt her own heart pounding madly at the discovery. Her _single_ heart, in contrast to his–

She couldn't even bring herself to think it out loud in her own head.

"This-... You-..."

She was speechless.

The redhead felt her legs turn to jelly as the lightheadedness increased, the blood being rushed from her head to her wildly beating heart, and she had to support herself on the railing that framed the ramp leading up to the console which she was standing on.

"Woah, easy there", she dimly heard Not-David's voice calling out to her, and the next moment the man was suddenly beside her, one arm around her shoulder as he supported her. "Now that's not exactly the reaction I had expected", he commented as he lead the pale faced girl towards the jump seat next to the console, unwittingly breaching one of his own conditions on her getting to see the TARDIS.

"Sorry, just a bit of a shock", she heard herself faintly replying while she was gently pushed into the worn leather seat. "And I haven't really eaten much", she absentmindedly added, not quite registering what she was saying, her mind still numbed by the shock. She was staring ahead, not really seeing what her eyes were resting on, until something yellow suddenly filled her vision. Blinking, Lydia focused on it and realised the Doc–, _Not-David_ was holding out a banana to her.

When she simply stared at it, not making any move to take it from him, the man prompted, "Here, eat this." He shook it once in front of her face. "No really, it'll help! Right energy boosters, bananas!"

Finally taking the offered fruit from him, Lydia just kept staring at it, perplexed with everything.

"Go on. Eat it", he encouraged once more.

Peeling the banana with shaking hands, the young woman did as she was told and bit into the fruit. She ate it mechanically, not knowing if she wanted to laugh or splutter at the absurdity of the situation she found herself in. Having finished eating, she sat back and closed her eyes, letting her head rest on the backrest of the seat, still feeling a little lightheaded. When her neck came in contact with the leather, she noticed that it was damp with a fine layer of cold sweat.

This couldn't really be happening, could it? This was... it was _impossible_! Nothing of this was real, it was fiction! So how the hell could she be sitting here, in the TARDIS, eating bananas the Doctor gave her?!

Oh.  
She had done it. Called him by that.

If everything else had been rea–, well, happened, then there was no denying that he really might be the Doctor, now was there...? Still, calling him that, even just in her mind, was... weird.

_'Am I dreaming?'_, she asked herself again. It sure as hell felt way too long and detailed for a dream, not to mention quite physical as well, what with having felt hungry and tired and cold and a little queasy just now. Did hallucinations feel this physical and long and detailed? She wasn't sure, it wasn't like she had ever really hallucinated before. She almost let out a bitter laugh at that absurd thought; _'No idea if I'm losing my mind, since I've never lost it before, so I can't tell if it feels this way. Ha, yeah!'_

Ugh. Her sarcasm wasn't really helping right now.

So even if she _was_ hallucinating, there wasn't really much she could do about it, now could she? All she could do was wait and see if it would go away, or at least lessen with time... She guessed she'd just have to handle it the way she had handled the shock and panic the night before; just focus on functioning and what is going on right there and now, the rest could be dealt with later. Thinking on the possible implications behind the reasons of why she might be experiencing all this, was a little too much with everything else right now.  
She'd just have to try telling the rational part of her brain to shut up for a bit, and take things at face-value for the moment, so that she could act and function. She should be able do that, right?

When she opened her eyes again after taking a few deep breaths some minutes later and sat up more straight, feeling less lightheaded and shaky now with her heart having calmed down, she noticed the Doctor (God, it was still bizarre thinking of him as that) was leaning back against the console, watching her.

"Better now?", he inquired.

"A bit, yeah...", she replied, eyes trained awkwardly on her lap. She wasn't really sure how to act around him. "Sorry about that."

"No problem, I'm just a little confused about your reactions. You agreed on some detailed answers in exchange for showing you the TARDIS?"

Lydia nodded hesitantly, feeling some nervousness return.

"Good. See, what I don't understand, is that you seem to know about me – yet you find it hard, shocking even, to believe I actually exist. Now that, in itself, might not be all that strange, considering there are many people out there who believe me to be just a myth or legend, so of course actually meeting me would feel a little surreal to them. Thing is", he paused, his dark eyes fixed on hers, "You seem to know too much, too many details about me to just be one of those people. And you even recognised me without me having introduced myself, claimed to have seen me on the telly - yet saying you mistook me for someone else, an actor?"

Lydia nodded again when he raised his brows questioningly at her.

"Now _that _doesn't make very much sense."

"Exactly!", she agreed. "Because the Doctor is not supposed to be real! He's just a fictional character from a TV show, played by an actor! So how can there be two hearts beating in your chest? How can this", she pointed at their surroundings, "Be actually bigger on the inside?!", she exclaimed agitatedly. Ah, so much for trying to tell the rational part of her brain to shut up...

He stared at her for a moment, before standing a bit sraighter and crossing his arms with a sniff. "Tell me more about this TV show then."

Lydia tried calming herself again, freaking out wasn't going to help. _'Just go on with it'_, she reminded herself. Letting out a deep breath, she gathered her thoughts for a moment.  
"Okay, so... It's a TV show about, well... _you_, your life, traveling through time and space with companions..." She paused, before admitting, "I really don't know how to go about this..."

"That's fine, let's just talk through it step by step. So it's about me? As you see me now?"

"About all of your incarnations, actually..."

That made him blink in surprise. "What?"

"The beginning was with the first older looking you, who stole the TARDIS, and your granddaughter coming to earth, followed by your other selves, and then the show had been on hiatus for over a decade, before being revived and moving on with Eccle–, I mean, your ninth incarnation and Rose, which is where I began watching it, and... uh, yeah..." She realised she had started rambling a little, stating random facts, not knowing what to say. God, this was one of the weirdest and most awkward conversations she'd ever had. When he just stared at her without replying, she used his silence to add, "See, that's why I'm having such a hard time with all this; it's just a sci-fi story, it's _fiction_!"

The silence stretched for several more seconds before he spoke again. "That's one of the strangest stories I have heard. Not _the_ strangest, mind, but still up there at the top..."

Lydia could see his tongue touching his teeth through his parted lips, while he watched her with a contemplative look. It was a little hard not to fall back to just seeing David Tennant in him.

"Okay, let's just assume I believe you for the moment – though I do wonder where the people from your universe would have this knowledge about my life from", he remarked with his left eyebrow raised. "Still, let's just assume it's true. There is still the question of how you got here; where is the device you would have used to travel through the Void? There is no denying you have done that, seeing how you're bathed in Void stuff and with the Rift activity the TARDIS picked up here", he stated. "But be it accident or deliberate, I meant it when I said that cracking the walls of the universe is nothing to be taken lightly. This can cause some serious consequences, even if it looks like the breach here has been somehow closed without having seemingly done too much damage. Still, who knows where else the walls might have been cracked? Or what it might have done to your home world?"

Lydia frowned at that. What did he mean...? Could something have happened to her home? (Well, should she really be in a different universe and not just hallucinating, that is. _'Come on, don't think about that and just go with it'_, she reminded herself once again.)

The Doctor (it still felt weird to call him that) let his words sink in for a moment, before continuing; "So, I wonder: where is that device now?"

When it became clear that he was expecting an answer, Lydia shrugged her shoulders. "I have no idea what device you're even talking about." At the man's rather unbelieving look, she added, "No really! I'm telling you, I just caught sight of that strange light in the wall and... well..." She hesitated, feeling a blush colour her cheeks. "I sort of just... poked my hand into it...?", she finished with pulling a face, knowing how stupid that must sound.

That statement earned her an incredulous look.  
She had always known her curiosity might get her into trouble one day - she'd just never expected it to be anything like... well, _this_.

"You just poked your–", he spluttered indignantly, before seeming to gather his thoughts. "You didn't step on anything that looked like a device, or a mat, or anything like that? Didn't touch anything else?"

"Uhm, no... Not that I had noticed, at least...?"

A deep frown settled on Dav–, the Doctor's face at that. "But that isn't possible! How could you have traveled through the Void without a method of transport?!"

Lydia just shrugged again at that. "You're really asking the wrong person here... I can only tell you what I know."

After staring at her with that incredulous look for several more seconds, he began pacing, running a hand through his spiky hair. "The worst about this is that it you actually appear to be honest!"

Okay... And that was bad?

"But that shouldn't be possible! It just can't be!", he claimed, gesticulating wildly.

_Ah._

"Welcome to my world", she couldn't resist mumbling in response, which earned her another look.

He kept on pacing in front of her, muttering a few unintelligible things, until there was a sudden movement on the small monitor at the console in front of Lydia. The display of the screen had changed and the Doctor stopped in front of it, bending forward while checking it.

"The TARDIS finished taking scans and collecting data on the remaining energy signatures from the breach... Good." He studied the screen for some more seconds, before muttering, "Now just to figure out what to do with you until she's done analysing it..."

As he turned around to face her again, Lydia noticed a lever behind him switching position, and then the sudden sound of the door they had left open slamming shut startled her as well as the Doctor. He wheeled around, just as the glowing tubes in the column at the center of the console (Lydia thought she rememberd it being called the time rotor) began moving up and down, and a slightly different version of the familiar whooshing sound she knew from the show resounded.

"What are you doing?!", he shouted at the column. He reached for the monitor and seemed to check something as the display changed again.

Lydia yelped in surprise when a sudden jolt went through the place, almost knocking her off the seat. What the hell was going on?!

"No, no, no, no!", the man shouted again, while making a grab for the lever. "Oh no you _don't_!" He seemed to be trying to pull the lever back down, but did not succeed. "Stop that, Old Girl!"

The shaking increased, and Lydia held on to the edge of the jump seat in order not to fall off it, feeling a little freaked out with the sudden shaking and whooshing sound. This couldn't really mean what she thought it did, could it...?

A victorious "HA!" came from the Doctor, followed by the jolting and the sound stopping again. When Lydia straightened herself, she saw that he had finally managed to pull the lever down.

"That's better..." He once more checked the monitor, before flipping a small switch, turning a bigger one and pulling at something Lydia couldn't really identify. "Now be a good girl and bring us back", he said while pushing the lever up again.

Lydia had expected the jolting to start again, but it didn't. Neither was there any whooshing, replacing the quiet pulsating sound currently reverberating though the room. Apparently that wasn't what was supposed to happen, since the Doctor frowned and looked up at the unmoving time rotor.

"What's wrong with you? Hey?"

He tried the lever a few more times with unchanging results, before raising his hand and simply thumping the column with his fist. When the tubes inside still didn't move, he got busy with the console again, trying different things, muttering all the while under his breath.

Lydia watched him dance around the console for some minutes, completely bewildered with it all, not knowing what to make of this. "Have we changed places...?", she asked uncertainly.

"Yes, she has brought us into the Vortex", he replied, sounding distracted. There was a grumble after another moment, followed by a whacking sound. "Fine, have it your way", he finally said with a glare at the time rotor. "I'll just have to to short-circuit you then if you refuse to behave." He continued glaring at it in a threatening manner (Lydia had the sudden thought of a battle of wills at that sight), before seemingly remembering she was still there, as he abruptly turned to face her. "Right, sorry 'bout that. She acts up sometimes."

Lydia was still working on taking in his earlier statement; they had actually left Earth? For real?

He studied her for a moment while she was looking around with slightly widened eyes. "Well! You wanted to 'take a long shower' earlier, didn't you?"

The redhead blinked at the sudden and complete change of topic. He remembered that comment?

He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Might as well make use of the time while the TARDIS is being petulant. It'll probably take me a bit to work on her before we can go back", he commented with another glare at the time rotor, before facing the redhead again and giving her a quick once-over. "I suppose you'd want some clean clothes as well? Doesn't make much sense, getting clean just to get into dirty clothing again, does it?", he asked, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh...", Lydia muttered unintelligently, completely thrown off the track with the turn of events. She self-consciously ran a hand through her still sticky hairline, thanks to the cold sweat earlier. Was she actually looking dirty...?

"Come on then", he said, already walking towards a hallway she spotted as she got up to follow him. "And don't wander off! Stay right behind me", he called over his shoulder.

Lydia simply went after him, feeling a little overwhelmed with the whole situation. They walked in silence for the most part, and the girl couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that any doors they passed where closed, so she couldn't take a peek into the rooms behind them. After several turns and hallways she completely lost her orientation and just made sure not to lose sight of the Doctor's back in front of her. The realisation of just _how much_ bigger the Police Box was on the inside, was a little mind-boggling.  
Some minutes later she found him having standing in front of an open doorway. Coming to a stop next to him, she gaped at the sight of what was very obviously the Wardrobe Room; clothes in all shapes and colours were hanging from twisting hanging rails on several floors that could be reached by a spiral staircase, with aisles in between, suggesting that it went deeper than could be seen.

"Casual wear can be found up to floor three upstairs, and underwear should be on the second floor downstairs – I'd recommend looking on the right side", he informed her.

"Right... Thanks...", Lydia replied when she had regained her composure somewhat. Hesitantly she made her way towards the staircase, feeling the Doctor's eyes on her back. The whole situation felt quite a bit surreal.  
All those colours were a little distracting in the beginning, but after a few moments she spotted a section with shirts and pullovers in one of the aisles and made a beeline for it. Going through the clothes with her hands, she soon picked out a simple dark blue formfitting t-shirt and after another minute or two she also found a zipped hoodie in a nice pine green that seemed to be about her size, as she held it against her upper body. Satisfied with her findings, she made her way down the stairs to look for some underwear, deciding to just stick with the jeans she was currently wearing, not wanting to have to search all too long to find something for her wide hips. She'd probably have to try trousers on to see if they really fit, and she just didn't feel like it right now. The search for underwear took her only a little longer than the previous one, and she soon made her way back up with the items slung over her arm.

"Finished?", the Doctor inquired as she made her way towards him. When Lydia nodded in reply, he said, "Off we go then", before turning around and leaving the wardrobe room.

They didn't walk as long as before, and after some turns the Doctor opened a door and went into a room, and just as Lydia was about to follow him in, he stepped back out again, nearly running into her.

"Wrong one. Should be this one then...", he mumbled as he walked past her to open a door on the opposite wall, sticking his head in – just to remove it again a second later and close the door again. "Nope", he declared, popping the 'p'. "Not that one either. That leaves..." He went to the only other door a little further down the hallway they were in, and when he opened it, he exclaimed a victorious "Ha!" before making an inviting gesture for Lydia.

The girl slipped past him and found herself in a slightly larger than average bathroom with white tiles decorating the walls. Taking a quick look around, she spotted a corner bathtub, with a shelf holding bathing supplies and toiletries next to it, and in the opposite corner was a shower with another shelf full of towels. On the other side of the room was a toilet and a sink with a mirror cabinet. Once she had inspected the room, she turned to face the Doctor, who was still standing in the doorway.

"Feel free to take your time. And no exploring! The TARDIS will let me know the instant you leave this room", he told her with a serious look. "Don't want you getting lost."

After confirming her understanding, he left her alone and Lydia closed the door. She put the fresh clothes she had picked on the closed toilet lid, set her messenger back on the ground next to it, and then went to the bathtub, turning the water tap on. Sure, she had wanted a shower before, but the tub just looked way too inviting, and a bath would be a good way to try and relax a little. While waiting for the tub to fill, she chose some supplies from the shelf, finding everything she could possbly need and more. That really was quite convenient. After preparing a towel so she could reach it from within the tub, she undressed and undid her updo, hair falling in thick waves over her back, before she finally sank into the warm water. An appreciative sigh escaped her lips, and she closed her eyes as she leant back against the porcelain.

For a long time she simply lay there, enjoying the feeling of the warm water and finding her body and thoughts relaxing. Her jumbled mind finally had a chance to regain some order, her thoughts no longer just running in circles. It was a little easier to think more clearly now. She still had some trouble with actually believing what was happening around her, but at least she came to the conclusion that it would be doing her no good to continually question her sanity or state of awareness. She'd just drive herself into a corner that way, so she was going to try to really take things as they appeared to be from now on. Everything seemed and felt real enough, after all, so even if it was all just hallucination she wouldn't have a way of telling it from reality anyway – so what the hell. Somehow that decision seemed to lift a weight from her, that she hadn't even realised was there.

Besides, she'd always prided herself a little on her open-mindedness – what better opportunity to test it than this?

* * *

Lydia couldn't really be sure how long exactly she had stayed inside the bathroom, but she was sure it had been an hour at the least, what with taking her time in the tub, dressing, drying her long hair and loosely pinning it up again and all. She had been standing in the hallway right in front of the door to the bathroom for some minutes now, thinking she was supposed to wait for the Doctor to get her, since he'd told her not to explore and that he'd know when she left it. When he still didn't turn up after five more minutes, she began to wonder, though. He couldn't really expect her to have remembered the way, could he...?

Just as she was considering if it would be wise to simply try her luck on her own, his voice sounded over a loudspeaker she made out at the end of the hallway.

"I told the TARDIS to lead you back to the control room, just follow the hallway to the left of the door."

"Right...", she found herself saying, before turning left and walking down the hallway as instructed. During her walk she noticed that - other than when she had been walking with the Doctor before - whenever there was fork leading to more than just one corridor, now there was only the door to one of them opened, when before it had been all of them. At one point a door slid shut right in front of her nose, causing Lydia to jump back with a startled yelp. She noticed another one opening on her right and made sure to go through it quickly, as if it could shut any second, a little spooked out from nearly having her nose caught earlier.

It felt like she was walking for quite a bit longer then she remembered doing with the Doctor, but she finally ended up at an open doorway through which she could see the control room. Feeling relieved, she walked up to the grating and spotted pinstriped legs peeking out from under the console, with cables and various tools scattered around them.

"Didn't get lost then?", his muffled voice inquired.

"Apparently", she replied. "Though I think I was close to losing my nose to a door at one point..."

She got a nondescript grunt in respone to her comment. When it became clear that he was going to stay under the console, Lydia sat down on the grating with her legs crossed, watching him work in silence. After a while a thought crossed her mind; she hadn't seen or heard of any companion... That made her realise that she didn't even know what of point of time it was for him.  
That realisation wouldn't leave her alone and after another moment she found herself asking, "So, are you traveling alone...?"

When he didn't reply for a while, she began to think that he hadn't heard her, or that he might be ignoring the question, until he came out from under the console, pulling a cable along with him.

"Yeah", he finally answered while sitting up. With another glare at the time rotor, he added, "And I intend to keep it that way."

Oh.

He turned to face her. "It shouldn't take much longer now. Once we're back, we'll work something out for you." With these words he pointed his sonic screwdriver at the end of the cable, removing the sheathing, and began tinkering with the inner parts.

Lydia blinked at his remark. Her fingers absentmindedly started fiddling with the edge of her messenger back which was resting next to her, feeling her stomach tense up with uneasiness. "So... are you just going to drop me off then...?" She didn't like the way her voice trembled every so slightly towards the end, betraying her uneasiness. Would he really do that? And if he did, what the hell was she going to do? It wasn't like she had any place to go to, or any_one_, for that matter...

"I thought about it", the Doctor admitted, and Lydia felt her stomach drop with a growing sense of fear – and disappointment.

"It seems to be the most logical way of action. I would have the TARDIS create some documentation for you to blend in, of course, probably also make sure to get you some financial basis - can't have you starving or freezing on some parkbench at night, now can we? I could even help you look for some place to stay at, if you'd like that?" He looked up from his work for a brief moment. "I don't know how long it will take the TARDIS to analyse all that data and work it out, tears in the fabric of time and space are tricky business, especially when it concerns a different universe. But once she has, maybe - just maybe - she'll be able to work out a safe way home for you? I can't promise there really will be one though, mind you", he added. "But _should_ we find a way, I'll pop around for you again, of course. Until then, I think, it would be best to get you settled. Just in case."

She wondered if he thought his words to be soothing. If he was just trying to keep her optimistic, from the quick way he said them. Because it sure felt that way...

At his words, the fear and disappointment were beginning to weigh her down. So she'd have to start a complete new life all on her own? Without any friends or family, anyone at all? And she'd have to give her old life up, just like that? The idea was scary. She remembered how desolate she felt, standing in her dad's apartment yet finding herself in completely foreign surrounding. Would it feel like that at every place that used to be familiar with now? And would she end up seeing a familiar face one day, just to realise she was meeting a complete stranger?  
Feeling suddenly very lost and vulnerable, Lydia found herself swallowing back a lump in her throat. Right now this man sitting opposite her was the only thing even remotely familiar to her, the only person she actually knew. Once he'd leave her behind, she would be literally alone in this world.

Now wasn't that a happy thought.

She also felt stupid and selfish for being disappointed about not getting to stay with him; why would he want her to accompany him, after all? It wasn't like she had done anything special or useful when they met, she was more like one of the many occurring problems he had to solve, and once he fixed it, he'd just move on, like he alyways did. It shouldn't have been so surprising to her, really. It wasn't like he had any kind of obligations towards her, after all.  
But that wasn't the only reason for her disappointment; she realised there'd been a growing hope at the back of her mind that – if this was all truly real – that she might end up finding a way back home if she just stayed with him and the TARDIS. A hope she had only just truly realised to be there, and which she already found to be taken from her again.

Lydia noticed her hands had become a little shaky again with all these thoughts and emotions running through her – and the implications of her situation were only just beginning to sink in. She tried her best to fight a rising sense of panic at the prospect of being left behind to start a new life all alone.

A painful outcry from the Doctor startled her out of her glum thoughts, and when she looked up she saw him sucking on a finger that had apparently been hurt – before noticing sparks flying from behind him under the console. With a frown he went back under it, taking the cable he had been working on with him. A sudden jolt went through the TARDIS again, almost knocking Lydia on her back. When the time rotor could be heard moving again, Lydia heard the Doctor exclaim a muffled curse.

"What are you doing?! I haven't even finished reconnecting the–"

He was cut off when the shaking increased, the lights on the walls flickering, now really knocking Lydia on her back. It seemed it wasn't enough that she was put through all the emotional roller-coasters; now we she was on a physical one, as well. She crawled towards the railing and held on to it, supporting herself. When she looked up again, she noticed the Doctor had gotten up and was desperately trying to work on the console, while at the sime time trying to hold on to it.

"Stop it! There're still pathways disconnected!" His hand sped from buttons to switches, trying all sorts of things, but the shaking continued and the time rotor kept moving despite the lights around them flickering madly. "She's going to knock herself out!", he cried, reaching for the monitor and quickly checking it. "And these aren't event the coordinates I have set!"

With a final jolt that threw the Doctor on the jump seat and send another bout of sparks flying from the console, the ship came to a halt. The relief Lydia felt at that was only short lived, as the lights on the walls went completely out. It was still bright enough to see, thanks to some light coming from under the grating, the coral like struts and the time rotor. She looked around with wide eyes, noticing smoke drifting up from under the console where the Doctor had been working at, the stench of burnt plastic filling the room.

She heard the man getting up from the jump seat and saw him move to the monitor. "Where have you taken us, Old Girl...?"

A single thought went through the young woman's head at that moment; Just what the hell kind of day was that?

* * *

_**A/N:**__ Wow, this chapter was __really__ hard to write. I did several drafts of it, and still ended up only just about satisfied with this version, especially the conversation in the beginning went really awkwardly off my fingers. I hope it didn't turn out too bad... :/_

_And again I didn't manage to worm in a situation to influence a decision, sorry about that. This chapter just turned out a lot longer than I had expected and I thought this was a good place to stop. I hope I'll find a good opportunity in the next one..._

_And lastly I'd like to thank you for the nice reviews (you have no idea just how much they motivate me!) and follows! It makes me really happy that this little project caught some interest :)  
Thanks for reading!_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: **__Oh my... Thanks for all those lovely reviews and PMs! I'll try to reply to each one of them, hope you can be a little patient with me... (Yeah, I can be reeeally slow sometimes...)  
I'm really glad about the interest in this story and that people have been so open towards Lydia. Thank you!_

_Now, something important I'd like to state about the following part of this story: When I decided to start this project, I had the idea to use a short adventure for tabletop roleplaying as basic plotline. I thought this might give me some good opportunities to let people decide on actions and influence the story, the way a game master lets the players decide on the progress of the adventure. There will, of course, still be a lot of my own improvisation and elaboration, and it might happen that I'll change some things from the adventure.  
Just wanted to let you know, and now I'll end this long author's note with a_

_**Disclaimer for the following chapters:**__ The basic plotline and background of the world will be based on the one-sheet roleplaying adventure "Das Ende von Eden" created by Stefan Urabl._

* * *

_[Previously:]_

_She heard the man getting up from the jump seat and saw him move to the monitor. "Where have you taken us, Old Girl...?"_

_A single thought went through the young woman's head at that moment; Just what the hell kind of day was that?_

* * *

The Doctor's attention was fixed on the screen, while Lydia got up on her legs, a little wobbly on them from the adrenaline rush of the TARDIS version of a rollercoaster ride. She took another look around the control room, taking in the smoke drifting from the console, the burnt smell making her wrinkle her nose, silently urging her madly beating heart to calm down.

What the _heck_ had happened?

A startled yelp escaped her throat, when all of the sudden something hit her on the head. Instinctively crouching down and holding the spot that had been hit, she cautiously looked up to see what had attacked her. An oxygen mask was dangling lazily from the ceiling, just at the spot where her head had been seconds ago. Letting out a breath she had been holding, she slowly straightened herself again, her other hand moving to her chest where her heart was back to beating wildly. God damn it, that had scared her...  
When she heard the Doctor sighing heavily a few seconds later, she returned her attention to him. She noticed another mask dangling next to him, with a safe distance to his head. _'Of course, _he_ doesn't get hit...',_ she thought surly, rubbing the top of her head and shooting the mask that had hit her a dirty look.

"She's on backup power. Enough to keep her basic systems running for now, but not to dematerialise", the Doctor informed her absentmindedly. "Just what were you thinking, Girl, jumping with pathways still disconnected...?" The last bit was said more quietly with a searching look up the now barely glowing time rotor, before his expression seemed to darken a little.  
The man went around the console, passing Lydia without a look, and crouched down in front of the opened part he had been working at before, waving some of the slowly dissipating smoke away with his hand. He pointed his sonic screwdriver at it (whether to scan something or just to use its blue light to see better, Lydia was left to wonder) and took a look at the damage. After a moment he went to another part of the console and removed the cover panel there as well after using his screwdriver on it.

Lydia couldn't help feeling a little like she was being purposefully ignored. Not knowing how she could help, she resorted to wrapping her arms around herself and simply watching the Doctor check the degree of damage in tense silence.  
When the silence began to feel uncomfortable, she was about to ask if there was anything she could do, maybe at least hold a torch for him or something, when the Doctor groaned.

"Oh, and _of course_ the fluid links had to run out of mercury, too!" He pulled at his hair, making it stick out even more wildly. "Why is it always the mercury?!"

"Can you repair the damage?", she asked uncertainly, not really sure what he was talking about.

"Yeah", he replied after a few seconds, giving a sniff. "But I'll need to stock up on mercury, otherwise the TARDIS won't be able transfer any generated power, and the backup supply won't last forever either. There's only so much that can be done without certain circuits getting power." It was hard to tell how he felt about it since his voice sounded rather detached after his short outburst about the mercury (whatever that was).

The room filled with silence again after that, each of them lost in their own thoughts. Lydia wondered just how bad their situation was. Would it mean they were actually stranded if he didn't find this mercury stuff? Or could the TARDIS still be repaired some way?

"Anyway!" His voice broke the silence after a while and pulled her out of her thoughts, carrying a more energetic tone as he went over to one of the coral like struts and took off his long coat that had been slung over it, putting it on. It was only then that Lydia realised he had been in only his brown pinstripe suit ever since she had returned from taking a bath. "Best check out where we are and if maybe we'll be lucky enough to find some mercury. And then take it from there." He gave her a long look while adjusting the lapels of his coat. "I'd rather not leave you alone in the TARDIS, especially not in her current state. Think you're up for some exploring?"

Lydia stared at him in surprise. Hadn't he been talking about intending to travel alone not all too long ago? Then again, maybe he didn't have another choice now if it really wasn't safe for her to stay in the TARDIS – or maybe he just didn't trust her with it.

"Well?", he inquired with raised brows when she hadn't answered after a few seconds.

"Uhm. I guess?" Her mind was having a little trouble keeping up with the changing turns of events and emotions of the day. She wasn't even sure if she actually _was_ up for it, so shortly after fighting the rising panic about being left behind on her own, and then the... crash? (Had that even been a crash?) But there wasn't much of a choice right now, was there?

"Off we go then!"

Lydia watched the man walk to the door and open it, poking his head out and taking a quick look around, before actually stepping out. The door was left open, waiting for her to step through it and follow him into the unknown.  
That was the moment it truly hit her that they had actually _left Earth_ earlier when he told her they'd been in the Vortex; that all the jolting had meant they had really _moved_ and...

_'Traveled through time and space...'_

She swallowed, feeling nervousness bubbling up, accompanied by some traitorous excitement.  
Where could they have ended up? Back on Earth, just in another time? Or even a different planet?

_'Is this really happening?'_

Trying to calm all those thoughts starting to run wild, she took a deep breath before finally moving to follow the Doctor out of the spaceship.

Lydia hadn't realised that she'd actually been expecting some kind of surreal view, yet when she stepped out of the blue phone box, she found that the view that greeted her made her feel strangely... disappointed, what with looking perfectly ordinary. The redhead turned around, taking the surroundings in from all sides. The TARDIS had ended up on a flat area at what appeared to be the middle of a small mountain. To the left of the box was the mountain face reaching up into an orange sky, and to the right there was a beautiful view of a valley, with rays of a sun hanging low in the sky peeking out between some more mountains and groups of conifers, bathing the surface of a sea in golden light.

While it was quite the postcard picture and beautiful in its own right, the view wasn't very unusual, reminding her of the Alps.

"Are we on Earth?", she voiced her thoughts. It felt strange to ask that.

"No, the coordinates belonged to a whole different constellation."

Oh. Okay.

At hearing his voice, Lydia turned her head to look at the Doctor and caught him licking his index finger. He held it into the air for a brief moment, before putting it into his mouth and licking it again.

"This planet has a very similar atmosphere to Earth's, though", he informed her, rolling his tongue around in his mouth and frowning. "Hmm. Odd."

Lydia stared at him for a moment in bemusement (so he could really tell that just from tasting the air?) before blinking and tearing her eyes from his mouth. "What's odd?"

"I thought I knew all planets with Earth-like environmental conditions around this era and part of the universe, especially those that have been terraformed like this one appears to be..." He finally lost his frown and shrugged, a grin replacing the previously confused expression. "Well then! Whole new planet to explore!" And with that he shoved his hands into the pockets of his coat and began marching down a mountain pass that the TARDIS doors (now closed, Lydia noticed) were facing.

When Lydia didn't follow immediately, still a little dazed with everything and his sudden change of mood, he turned around, walking backwards.  
"What are you waiting for?" He beckoned her to follow with a tilt of his head, before turning around again.

It took the Doctor disappearing from sight around a bend of the mountain for her feet to finally start moving.

* * *

They had been walking down the pass for around half an hour, the valley coming closer ever so slowly, and now that Lydia had gotten over the initial surprise of their situation (the surroundings looking rather normal probably helped quite a bit with that), she found her thoughts wandering back to the conversation before the TARDIS had acted up, and with that also to the Doctor's timeline. (She purposefully skipped over the part where he had told her that he planned on leaving her behind. She wasn't quite up to face that prospect again.) She realised she didn't know what he had already been through and what was still to come for him, so she wasn't sure who and what would be safe to mention. Thinking about which knowledge might or might not be a safe topic, made her realise that she actually - quite probably, should things really be like in the show (she tried to ignore the weirdness of _that_ thought) - knew about his future. And that opened a whole new can of worms that she was not ready to think about, her mind already spinning with only considering the implications of that, so she was quick to dismiss it again and shove these thoughts to the back of her mind. That was just a bit too much to right now. (To be honest, the whole day had been a bit too much.)

Still, the question of who his last Companion had been wouldn't leave her alone, so she'd at least know around which point of his timeline they were. She worked up her courage. "So... You said you're travelling alone..." When no reaction came from the Doctor, who was walking a little ahead of her, she bravely continued, "May I ask who you trav–"

"I noticed you have a tiny bit of an accent." He cast a glance at her over his shoulder. "Barely noticeably, really, but still there. You aren't a Brit, are you, or at least haven't been for very long?"

Surprised at the interruption and change of topic, Lydia blinked at him. _'Well... Point taken.'_ He very obviously didn't want to talk about his companions, so she swallowed the question, telling herself she'd try again at another time. "Uh, partly, actually... Grew up in Germany for the most part, though."

"Oh, Germany!" He turned around then, the tail of his coat flapping around his legs with the motion, and kept on walking backwards while facing her now. "I was there at the fall of the Berlin Wall! _Fantastic_ atmosphere, I tell you, all these people celebrating their freedom in the streets, complete strangers crying in each other's arms... Ohh, now that was a sight! You should have been there, really! Although," his eyes roamed over her face, "I don't think you were even born then?"

"As a matter of fact, I was."

"Really now?" His eyebrows disappeared into his hairline.

"Yes, _really_." Lydia tried not to roll her eyes, giving him a sarcastic smile. That topic was prone to annoy her rather quickly, as it was an old joke she often found herself to be the butt of. Especially her best friend Wolfgang got a kick out of it whenever she was asked for her ID when they went clubbing or to the cinema, even more so when she was compared to the photo on it very sceptically, teasing her about it for at least the following ten minutes. But the worst was dealing with clients at work sometimes.  
She blamed it on her lack of height – others on her youthful facial features.

"Shouldn't you of all people know not to judge someone's age just by their appearance?" Ugh, that came out sounding a bit too much like pouting...

"True enough", he replied. "So I assume you're around your early twenties then?"

"Twenty-four."

"Hmm... And here I thought _I_ looked young for my age", he teased with a twinkle in his eyes.

Lydia gaped at his cheek, to which the Doctor simply grinned, before turning around once more and coming to a sudden stop, cutting her off the remark she had been about to make.

"Aha!" He pointed at something around the bend of the mountain. "Civilisation!"

Lydia came to a stop next to him, following his outstretched hand with her eyes. She could just about make out what looked like group of houses in the distance, a village perhaps? "Are we supposed to _walk_ all the way there...?", she asked, already not liking the idea very much. It looked rather far away.

The Doctor gave her a look. "Well, you could always try rolling down", he answered drily. "How else do you suggest we get there?" With that he simply continued walking.

Lydia's shoulders sagged at the prospect. For a short moment she had forgotten the situation she was in; that she was walking down a mountain pass on a foreign planet she was apparently stranded on (with a supposedly fictional, time-travelling alien, no less), but now she remembered her position, the easy banter just now fading again.

The young woman moved to catch up with him again. She just hoped it wasn't quite as far away as she feared.

* * *

It had taken about another hour and a half to get off the mountain, with a short rest she had to ask for. Lydia wasn't sure how long exactly they had been walking, since she hadn't checked her mobile phone for the time, but she was sure it must have been at least around three hours now since they had left the TARDIS. Even though the terrain had been rather easy to walk on, her legs were beginning to ache in protest. Her body wasn't really used to hiking. And damn, she was thirsty. At least the sun had set a while ago, the evening chill cooling her hot skin a little. She was slowly but surely starting to feel quite exhausted, though.

They have been walking through the valley for a while now, passing forests and a few more mountains, and she really hoped the Doctor knew which way they were supposed to go. He had rambled about the flora and fauna around them on occasion, stating random facts which Lydia hadn't always really listened to, to be honest, but was still glad about. His talking distracted her from straining her ears to the unfamliar nightly sounds of the forests around them, she had to admit she was a little spooked by their dark surroundings.

Conversation had been limited to these factual ramblings and a few question about them from her, no more attempts to go for more personal topics. She wondered if earlier had only been to distract her from her question and anything personal about him.  
Nor had there been any more questions about the TV show and her knowledge from it so far. She tried not to read too much into that fact, but it still left her feeling a little uncertain on how she was supposed to act around the Doctor. While he hadn't been outright rude to her so far - well, apart from the time she had believed him to be David Tennant - he also wasn't exactly amicable, rather aloof even. And while, in theory, Lydia knew that he didn't have any reason to be all friendly with her - a random stranger that he probably didn't even quite trust - she still had to admit that it didn't feel exactly nice to be kept at distance like that.  
Still, she shouldn't have expected anything else, really.

She realised her thoughts were beginning to run in circles again. Maybe she could do with some real sleep to reboot her brain, so to say, she really wasn't feeling quite like herself at the moment.

The Doctor was currently quiet again, the only sounds being their steps in the grass and the occasional animal sounds coming from nearby forests. At least Lydia thought they came from animals.  
She slowed down when it felt like she was about to get a cramp in her right calf. "Doctor? Could we maybe take a short rest?"

The Doctor stopped and turned towards her. "Again?"

"Sorry, but I need to take a breather for a moment. Human legs, you know", she reminded him with an apologetic smile.

Sighing, he plopped down into the grass. It was really unfair that he didn't seem to be winded at all. Lydia followed his example, stretching her legs and gently massaging her calves. After a while she let the rest of her body fall into the grass as well, spreading her arms out. There seemed to be a lot more stars in the sky than she could ever remember seeing on Earth. It was quite a breathtaking view, and for a moment she simply lay there, silencing all thoughts, and took it in.  
When something caught her attention at the edge of her field of vision a bit later, she tilted her head back further to see more, before pushing her body up on an elbow to look back. "Woah, this is beautiful!"

"Hm?", she heard the Doctor's voice behind her.

"I've never seen polar lights with my own eyes before!"

The night sky was streaked with soft green and magenta lights just over the dark edges of a chain of mountains in the direction they had been heading from. Lydia stared at the view in awe; the colours of the lights weren't quite as vibrant as she had seen on some photos, but it was still amazing.  
She was pulled out of her wonder by a whirring sound piercing through the quiet of the night, and looked over her shoulder to see the Doctor pointing his sonic screwdriver at the sky.

He looked at the readings on the small device and frowned. Then fiddled around with it before taking another scan and checking the results again, his frown deepening. "Let's move on", he said, getting up on his feet again.

"But... Could I look at it just a bit–"

"Come on!" He was already moving again. "It shouldn't be far anymore, and then you can have a proper rest. Promise!"

Lydia sighed and got up, stretching her legs a little and casting one last glance at the lights before following him once again.

* * *

_**A/N²: **__This kept getting longer and longer, and I'm having a little trouble writing some later parts, so I decided to split the happenings into two separate chapters, even though it was originally planned as one, so you won't have to wait longer for the update. The next one is already halfway through, so hopefully it shouldn't take quite as long again for me to update. Hopefully. [clears throat awkwardly]  
It'll most probably end with the possibility to vote on and influence a decision again, so I hope that makes up for the wait. :)_

_Thank you for reading!_


	6. Chapter 6

_[Previously:]_

_"Come on!" He was already moving again. "It shouldn't be far anymore, and then you can have a proper rest. Promise!"_

_Lydia sighed and got up, stretching her legs a little and casting one last glance at the lights before following him once again._

* * *

It had taken another good hour to reach the village they had seen from the mountain. Lydia sighed in relief at the sight of the houses in front of them, her legs and shoulder really aching by now, the latter from the weight of her messenger bag. All she could think about now, was the need of something to drink to relieve her parched throat, and a place to rest her exhausted body on.  
At least the rapidly growing fatigue had pushed most of the nagging thoughts to the back of her mind, for the last fifteen minutes she had only been concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other and keeping the Doctor's back within sight. He'd rambled a few facts at her again at the beginning, but only getting several tired 'Mhh's and 'Ah's had prevented any real conversation from coming up.  
Her body was reminding her that she hadn't had a lot of sleep the night before, and that there'd already been quite a bit of walking before she had even entered the TARDIS. It seemed like all the adrenline rushes in these past two days had depleted her body's energy reserves. Or at least it felt that way. Even the hunger she had felt on occassion throughout the day had faded into the background by now.

When they were near enough to the village to make out details of the buildings, she could see that most of them were made of wood, the window and door frames richly decorated with carvings, in the faint light of some lanterns they passed. Lanterns that didn't look very electrical, she still managed to notice in her tired state. Most of the houses were dark, only the odd window illuminated by a soft light from inside. Somewhere in the very back of her mind she felt a slight disappointment at being too tired to really care about her surroundings and actually _look_ at them, but even that was quick to fade again. It had been a long time since she'd last been _that_ exhausted.

As they got a little deeper into the village, walking down several alleys, the faint sound of voices caught her ears. The Doctor seemed to be walking straight towards the sound, and soon Lydia spotted a slightly larger building in front of which a few people stood, talking. Her pulse quickened just the tiniest bit, making her a little more alert to her surroundings. They looked human. Dressed a little oddly, but still very much human looking. Their heads turned towards them as they approached, their voices falling silent. Lydia could now also make out some more muffled voices coming from inside the building through a door that was left ajar.

"Hello!", she heard the Doctor's cheery voice greet what she now saw were two men and a woman.

"Hello...", came a stunned sounding reply from one of the men after a brief moment. All three were staring at them in surprise.

"Could you maybe tell us where we are? I'm afraid we got a little lost along our journey", the Doctor said, seemingly completely ignoring the people's quite apparent confusion at seeing them, which only seemed to grow at his words.

After another stunned second, the man who had replied their greeting seemed to recover himself. "Would you look at that!", he exclaimed with a growing smile, shooting the other two villagers a quick look. "We have visitors! You must be from one of the outer colonies then, if you haven't been around here before?", he asked, giving them a quick once-over.

"Weeeell, I guess you could say that, yeah", the Doctor replied.

A grin spread over the man's face. "Welcome to Greenedge, then!", he exclaimed, giving the Doctor a friendly clap on the shoulder. "You're at the border to the western meadowlands of the Valley. My name is Iwin."

The Doctor returned Iwin's smile. "Pleased to meet you, Iwin, I'm the Doctor and this is Lydia." There was only the briefest questioning look at the Doctor's name, but it was not commented on.

The people gave Lydia a polite smile in greeting, which she did her best to return, muttering a small "Hello". The other man and the woman were also introduced, but Lydia didn't quite catch their names.

"Well then," Iwin continued, "how about we go inside and talk? I'll ask my wife to warm up some leftover soup."

"Oh, thank you, but that's really not necessary–", the Doctor began, not getting very far with his protest before Iwin cut him short.

"No, no, I insist! I am sure you must be hungry and tired from your journey at this time of night", he said with a glance at Lydia. "Let me at least offer you a place for the night, and maybe you can tell me about your journey and what brings you here? We don't get visitors often, especially none that I haven't seen before."

Hadn't it been for the kind tone in his voice and warm smile, Lydia would have thought there'd been a hidden suspicion in the remark. As it was, she wasn't sure if that was the case.

The Doctor studied her for a moment while seeming to consider the offer. "Well... In that case I guess we'll gratefully accept. I do have a promise to keep, after all."

Lydia gave him a small, tired smile, thankful for the prospect of getting some real rest. And something to drink, God, she really wanted something to drink...

Iwin said goodbye to the other two villagers, who had apparently been about to head home, and led the way into the building.

As they were following him, the Doctor leaned in close to Lydia. "You look positively knackered...", he commented with a quiet voice.

"I am a bit", she admitted.

"Why didn't you ask me to slow down if you were that tired?"

She blinked. That was a good question, actually... Why _hadn't_ she asked him to? Thinking about it, she realised she hadn't wanted to be a bother, since he'd already been so aloof, so she had simply pushed herself and gone along with it. Yeah, he might not have looked all too happy when she'd asked for another rest, but he'd still given in without much of a protest, hadn't he? She was sure he would've slowed down if she'd asked him to.

Feeling a little stupid now, she simply shrugged awkwardly in reply. (Ugh, why was she always so awkward around him...?)

They entered the building, which seemed to be some kind of tavern, or something? There were several tables and chairs standing in one side of the spacious room, and on the other side were several pillows, rugs and furs lying around the floor in front of a stony fireplace, currently occupied by a handful of people. They seemed to be chatting, two teenaged looking girls were what looked like knitting and sewing, and a man was working on some carving. The former two looked up curiously at them, pausing shortly in their conversation.

"Come, have a seat while I'll look for my wife", Iwin called to them from a table close to one of the walls.

Lydia followed the Doctor to the table, watching Iwin disappear behind a door and sat down on a short bench standing next to the wall, the Doctor chose a chair opposite her. Not knowing what to say to him after the akward question earlier, Lydia let her eyes wander over the room, dimly lit by the fireplace and a few oil lamps, giving it a cozy atmosphere. The girls at the back of the room kept throwing them curious glances, their conversation a little quieter now. After a few minutes, Iwin returned, setting two prettily formed cups and a jug on the table.

"Here, have a drink", he said while pouring some dark liquid from the jug into the cups. "My wife is heating up the soup, it'll take just a moment."

Ohh, yes, something to drink! Lydia thanked the man and took the cup standing in front of her, sniffing at the beverage. It smelled sweet. She took a cautious sip, finding that it seemed to be some kind of juice, a little sour but still good. She drained the cup in one hurried go after that, letting out a contented sigh as she put it down again. When she looked up, she found the two men watching her with some amusement, and felt her cheeks grow hot. "Sorry... I was a little thirsty...", she mumbled sheepishly.

"Yes, I can see that", Iwin chuckled. "Drink as much as you want." He refilled her cup while talking.

Lydia didn't quite drain it in one go again, but was still fast to empty it, before shily refilling it once more herself. She felt a little awkward about it, but _ah_, that felt a lot better now.  
The Doctor and Iwin had begun chatting in the meantime. Listening to the conversation with half an ear, Lydia found her eyes drifting to the people at the back of the room, watching them work. The rhytmic movements of their hands were quite hypnotic. As she watched them, with all the juice filling her stomach and the cozy light in the room, she soon found herself becoming quite drowsy.

"So, the Valley lies where exactly...?", she heard the Doctor ask.

Mh, she wondered if it would be terribly impolite to ask for a place to sleep when they had only just met these people... She briefly entertained the idea of simply leaning back against the wall and resting her itching eyes for a bit, but that would probably seem a little rude, too, wouldn't it?

"...there have been stories of it, yes, but we never really met any before", Iwin's voice said.

Huh? Had they changed topics without her noticing? Her attention must be drifting a little there...

What had they even been talking about again earlier?

Something about the location, and then...? She couldn't quite remember... Nor could she really bring herself to care much, to be honest. Oh, and there her attention went again...

At one point she felt someone shake her gently on the shoulder, startling her out of a half-sleep she hadn't even realised she had fallen into. Blinking blearily, she saw the Doctor removing his hand from her shoulder.

"Maybe we'd better get you into bed, hm? I don't think sleeping on the table would be very comfy."

She nodded and made an agreeing sound, before looking around in some confusion and noticing a woman standing next to the table with two bowls in her hands. The woman placed them on the table and smiled kindly at her.

"Come, dear, I'll show you the way."

Lydia got up from the table and bid the men goodnight, following the woman through a door and then up some stairs with heavy legs, barely registering where they were going. They entered a small room with two beds and some other furniture, and the woman asked her if she really didn't want to have some soup first. Lydia declinded, thanking her, and was soon left alone in the room. Stripping down to her t-shirt and panties and removing the pins from her hair, she climbed into the bed closest to her, only briefly noting how odd the mattress felt, before falling asleep almost instantly.

* * *

Lydia blinked her eyes open and rolled on to her side, catching sight of the grey sky hanging over her dad's little, shared garden outside the window. Great. Another overcast day then, she grumpily thought.

Wait.

Her dad's garden?

She sat up, looking around the room she was in; her room, or rather, the guest room in her father's apartment in London.

Oh. So it had just been a dream, after all. Huh.

She got up and went to the kitchen, finding her dad seated at the table, a cup with coffee in front of him and the newspaper hiding his face.

"'Morning", she greeted and sat down on the other side of the small table.

"Good morning", he replied, not even taking the newspaper down to look at her. Rude.

"I had a really weird dream", she told him, taking a bread roll from a basket on the table and cutting it in half. "There was a TV hoax, and David Tennant was there - you know, the actor - only it wasn't the actor but–" She stopped talking when she caught sight of a photo on the front page of the newspaper as she was reaching for the butter; it showed her standing with said actor - in jeans and t-shirt - with his arm around her in front of the TARDIS, grinning broadly into the camera.

"So it was weird then?", her dad asked.

Only that when he lowered the newspaper, it wasn't her dad – it was the Doctor.

"And here I thought we had such a good time!"

* * *

Lydia's eyes flew open. She found herself staring at an unfamiliar wooden ceiling, before sitting up and looking through a likewise unfamiliar room, needing a few seconds to sort her thoughts, feeling utterly confused.

So that had been a dream? Was she awake now, or still dreaming?

She sat on the bed for several minutes, just looking around and waiting for anything to change or happen. When neither did, she began to feel more assured that she wasn't dreaming anymore. Hopefully.  
Ugh, dreams of waking up were some of the weirdest and most confusing she knew...

Her thought process was becoming clearer now that she was more awake, and she went through the memories of the last night, or at least the bits she could actually remember. Even feeling more awake now, that last night felt quite a bit surreal. She had been so drugged with fatigue and out of it, that she hadn't really been paying attention to anything around her, which left her feeling a little embarrassed. What kind of impression must she have left – to either man?

The redhead stretched her limbs, still feeling quite groggy despite being awake. Her head was throbbing a little, too. And ohh, having stretched and moving her legs out of the bed, she realised that the muscles in her leg were quite sore. (And she really had to go to the loo.)

Well, wasn't that a bright start into the day.

Sighing, she collected her clothes from the floor and dressed, before making the bed she had slept in. When she finished, she noticed the other bed in the room looked the same as she remembered it, apparently not having been touched at all. Looking at the wooden furnitures in the room, the beds with their odd, lumpy mattresses, she was reminded of how most of the building appeared... well, _old_. It made her wonder what sort of era they had ended up at, and if it was comparable to Earth's at all.

Lydia grabbed her messenger bag and left the room; no other way to find that out. Looking around the small hallway, she noticed that it ended in a wall to her right, so she turned left and soon found the stairs she vaguely remembered walking up last night. It felt decidedly weird to wake up in and walk around a completely unfamiliar house.

Arriving downstairs (with a wince thanks to her sore muscles), she recognised the room they had been in last night, her eyes drawn to the table she had sat (and apparently fallen asleep) at, now being empty. Hearing noises coming from a door near it, she went towards it and knocked softly on the wood, before opening the door and hesitantly poking her head in.  
She was greeted by the sight of what seemed to be the kitchen – and the woman she sort of remembered showing her to the room upstairs last night, who looked up from some work at Lydia's entering.

"Hello, dear!", she greeted her with a smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"Uh, yes, thank you..."

"Let me get you something to eat, I'm sure you must be hungry." The woman put what she had been working on a worktop in front of her and went to another part of the kitchen.

"Oh, uhm... If it's not too much trouble...?" Lydia had to admit that she really _was_ quite hungry.

"Of course not! Go and have a seat", she told the redhead with a nod towards the room behind her.

"Can I help in some way?"

"That's not neccessary, I'll just get you some cold dishes you can prepare to your liking, if that's alright with you? I'm a little busy preparing some things for tonight."

"Of course, thank you." She hesitated for a moment, watching the woman gather several things, before asking what had been on her mind since coming downstairs. "Do you know where the man is I was with...?"

"Oh, he said he wanted to go explore the place a little a while ago. I'm sure he'll be back soon."

"Ah... I see." Lydia couldn't help feeling a little disappointed that she didn't get to join the Doctor in the exploring. Now that she was feeling more like herself again and actually aware of her surroundings, she was quite curious to see more of the place. But then again, she couldn't really expect him to just sit around and twiddle his thumbs while she was sleeping – especially on a whole new planet for him. So it shouldn't have come as surprise, really. (She ignored the little voice telling her that it had sort of come as one, though.)  
One last thing then; "Uhm, is there maybe a toilet, or, uhm, a... latrine... somewhere?" Her bladder was almost painfully reminding her of all the juice she had been drinking last night.

The woman led Lydia outside, through another door than the one they had entered the building through last night with the Doctor (which was probably the front door), to what appeared to be a garden of sorts. She introduced herself as Rona, Iwin's wife, on the way, before leaving the redhead alone to do her business.

Lydia found herself standing in front of a tiny, wooden structure.

_'Well, at least it's not open or anything... And I've got tissues.' _Patting her messenger bag, she entered the privy and relieved herself.

When she stepped out again a moment later, she wondered what to do about her hands. She'd rather not eat after using the loo without washing them... Looking around while slowly making her way back to the building, she spotted a pump well with a low stone basin standing a few metres away, between Iwin's house and another building. Feeling relieved, she went over to it and began pumping with one hand, holding the other under the water, before using it to wet the other too. When she was just about to pump again, she noticed a small brownish lump lying on the edge of the stony basin.  
_'Wait, could that be...' _Picking it up and running her wet thumb over it on a hunch, she felt it become slick, and soon a little creamy in her hand.

Huh, would you look at that; soap. Maybe this place wasn't _quite_ as medieval as she had first thought?

Happy with her discovery, she lathered her hands and finished washing them, before heading back to Iwin's house. On her way, a young man coming out of the smaller house next to it passed her, carrying what looked like a wooden bench over his shoulder. He slowed down a little when they got close and gave her a bright smile.

"Hello, welcome to Eden!", he greeted.

"Uh, thank you...", Lydia replied, surprised at the cheery greeting from the stranger.

"I'd love to chat, but these aren't going to deliver themselves", he said with tilt of his head towards the bench. "I'll catch you later?", he asked with an eager look.

"Uhm... sure...?"

He pulled a hand free and waved at her, before continuing on his way, leaving Lydia standing confused between the houses, her hand still awkwardly up from waving back.

Was _everyone_ this friendly around here...?

She shook her head and made her way back into the house, and when she entered the big room she assumed to be some kind of common room again, she noticed that the table she had been sitting at last night was no longer emtpy; several plates and bowls with food, as well as a jug with what looked like the juice she had last night, were standing on it.  
Sitting down, Lydia took a quick look at what was available and began eating.

Around fifteen minutes later, when she was munching on a slice of (really good) bread with some jam, the front door opened and the Doctor entered the room. He took a quick look around, before spotting her at the table and coming over with a small grin.

"Oh, hello there!" He took a seat opposite her. "Back with the living at last?"

"Yeah, hi", she smiled sheepishly at him. It felt a little weird again for a moment there to actually see and talk to the man, especially after that confusing dream she'd just had. "How long have I been sleeping?"

"Been almost twelve hours now since you went to bed."

Oh. That explained why she felt so groggy... Though it was getting a little better now with the food in her stomach, the headache was almost gone, too.

"Really, I'll never understand how you humans can be fine with sleeping half of your life away", he commented, taking something she hadn't been able to identify from a bowl and popping it into his mouth.

Lydia couldn't help rolling her eyes. "Not everyone has 'superior physiology', you know. And I had a rather eventful two days..."

They ate together in comfortable silence for a moment, Lydia's thoughts drifting back to Rona and the man outside bustling around. "The people here seem to be quite busy, don't they?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, must be the preparations for the evening festivities."

"Evening festivities?"

"Yeah, to welcome the first outside visitors they ever had."

It took her a moment to get the meaning of his words and connect it to the situation. "Wait, they're making a party for _us_?", she asked, dumbfounded.

"Yep", he answered, popping the 'p'. "I tried telling them there is no need, but they wouldn't hear of it. Honestly, for all their easy friendliness these people can be quite stubborn." He grabbed a smoked looking, thin sausage from one of the plates. "Or maybe they just really like to party, who knows."

The next few minutes passed in silence as Lydia was lost in her musings. She wondered what the Doctor had found ins his exploration. He didn't looky very tense or nervous, so maybe he had some good news?  
Maybe she should just ask him about it.

"So... this all looks a little... well, I don't know, traditional or 'medieval', doesn't it?" She still felt a little uncomfortable about that fact; could that mean they wouldn't be able to find the needed mercury stuff here? That was probably something more advanced, if it was used in spaceships, wasn't it?

"Hm, a little perhaps. They don't seem to use any kind of electronics at all, actually resorting to mostly traditional methods in their every day life, from what I've seen." He paused and took a bite from the sausage, gazing at her intently. "Yet when I scanned the surroundings, I found some residue of shielding technology in the atmosphere. And during my walk around a forest at the other side of the village, I also came upon unpowered ultrasound transmitters placed around the grounds – bit like a perimeter."

She frowned. That was weird...

"Exactly", he said at seeing her frown. "What I _do_ know is that these people are at least aware of the existence of advanced technology as well as apparently space travel, since the concept of us appearing from the stars didn't seem too far-fetched or even completely new to them."

She looked up from refilling her cup in surprise. "You told them we're not from this planet?"

The Doctor stared at her. "Where you dozing through the _whole_ conversation last night?"

Lydia blushed. She really could recall only random bits after they had arrived at the village... "Yeah, well, I was a _little_ exhausted...", she weakly defended herself.

"Quite evidently", he replied, giving her a look, which softened after a moment. "Sorry 'bout that, by the way. I should have payed more attention to you. Forgot how fast those _'human legs'_ of yours can tire on longer distance."

She blinked in surprise at the unexpected apology; she could have asked him to slow down after all, and it wasn't like they'd had any other way than walking, and– Wait, had he just thrown her own words from last night back at her?

"Especially short ones. Legs, I mean. Not that I'm saying yours are short", he quickly added, glancing at her jeans clad legs. "Well, except, they _are_... Really, how _do_ you get from place to place in any time?"

The questioning look was wiped off his face, as a torn off piece from Lydia's bread hit him in the face and bounced off his cheek, being replaced by a bewildered one.

The redhead's eyes widened slightly when she realised she had given in to a reflex without taking into consideration just who her target was; which was usually Wolfgang, the reason for this reflex of throwing things when someone was poking just a little too much fun at her.

A moment of silence passed as they stared at each other.

"Did you just throw your breakfast at me?"

Lydia had to stifle a nervous laugh at the Doctor's tone and expression. "I believe I did", she replied, trying – and failing – to keep a straight face when she noticed a bit of jam clinging to his cheek.

Another second of silence.

"Well, that's new", he finally simply said, wiping the jam from his cheek and licking it off his finger. "Oh, this is good! Anyway," he surprised Lydia a little when he simply went on with the earlier conversation, "yes, they know we're not from this planet. And everyone simply accepted it, just like that!" He frowned, putting his elbows on the table and leaning slightly towards her. "I have also heard some of the people mentioning a Guardian. That's a capital G, by the way", he commented, pointing the half-eaten sausage at her. "And from what I have gathered, they know about technology from him, and he seems to be the source of the electronic bits I found. They didn't know much more, other than that this 'Guardian' apparently protects them and takes care of everything around them, nor did they even seem to care much about the details... Can you imagine that?! Knowing of some being controlling your world and just accepting it like that, without giving a jot about it?" He gave her an incredulous look, sounding indignant.

Lydia had just been thinking on a reply, when he already continued.

"But anyway," another bite into the sausage, "I have been told a village elder of sorts knows more and to talk to him when he returns from a trip to a neighbouring village. He should've arrived by now, just wanted to check how you are doing and let you know what's going on." The last bit of sausage disappeared in his mouth and he got up from his chair. "Shouldn't take very long, I think."

Lydia watched him as he put the chair back under the table and made to leave again. "Are you..."

He stopped to look at her.

"Are you going on your own then?"

"Yah, it'll basically just be two old men talking, quite boring, really", he told her with a wave of his hand. "You just stay here and I'll come back as soon as I am finished, alright?"

* * *

Feeling a little left out at that, Lydia found herself presented with two options:

**a)** Play it safe and ask to go with the Doctor, even though it didn't really seem like he wanted her to. Still, it might be better to stick with him in this unknown situation, just in case. (And she'd at least try doing something against feeling left out.)

**b)** Stay back back with their hosts and offer to help with the preparations. Maybe she could make herself useful and find out some more information about it all by talking to the villagers and casually poking around a little?

The poll can be found at the top of the profile page.

* * *

_**A/N:**__ So. This still turned out longer than I had expected. I think I might occassionally update with shorter chapters again in the future, in case that should help with presenting more opportunities to influence the story... We'll see._

_Thanks for reading! :)_


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